


Be my guiding light (so I can find my way back home)

by SocialDistress



Category: All Time Low (Band), Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: A lot of humor, Awkward situations, Drama & Romance, Fluff and Smut, Humor, I don't even know what to tag because I don't want to ruin the plot, M/M, Plot Twists, Supernatural Elements, it'll be good i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-06-21 16:46:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15562119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SocialDistress/pseuds/SocialDistress
Summary: Tyler inherits an old house out of the blue. As he moves in, he discovers long lost childhood memories and other secrets buried beneath the surface.





	1. YEAR ZERO

**Author's Note:**

> So, here I am back with a brand new story and boy this is going to be a long one.  
> I think this is going to be a rollercoaster, and I swear it'll be good.  
> Fasten your seatbelts and welcome to the ride!
> 
> I'll add more tags as the story goes on.

Tyler was standing in a garden of an old two and a half story colonial style building. Only... the garden wasn't really a garden anymore, more like a feral splotch of land with a dilapidated house in the center. He could hear birds chirping cheerfully in the trees even though he couldn't see any.

“She must have hated me", Tyler said more to himself than the tall man standing few feet behind him.

“It's not exactly Barbie’s dreamhouse, I admit that", the man said and peered around with his jet black sunglasses on. He was tall, at least 6”4, and had a body type of more like a MMA fighter or a bodyguard rather than a lawyer. He had an accent, European, maybe German, and he was hot.

“Are you sure she left this to me?” Tyler looked at the lawyer and bit his lower lip nervously.

“I consider myself being a fairly good at what I do, so yes, I'm sure”, the lawyer assured and removed his sunglasses. Tyler nodded still biting his lip trying to avoid staring at him for too long. He had dark eyes and he looked extremely smart and sharp. His hair was even darker, and it complimented perfectly his pale complexion. His haircut reminded Tyler of Brendon’s, except less.. well, Brendon. Instead he looked around the premises trying to convince himself that all of this decaying feral pile of whatever was his.

Tyler barely remembered his great aunt, but obviously she had remembered Tyler. She had ignored all the other living relatives in her will, including Tyler's mother, and left him everything she had. That everything comprised the real estate and a fair amount of money that Tyler could never dream of having as a struggling musician working a side job in retail.

Her will had caused quite the controversy amongst Tyler's relatives and had left some of them hating him, but he really couldn't care less. He didn't like most of the people he was related to besides his family in the first place. After this mess had happened Tyler liked them even less if possible, and only saw them as vicious vultures flying over a rotten carcass. Tyler still couldn't understand why she had chosen him of all people to inherit her. He had gone through everything from his childhood he could remember in his mind, but couldn't find a reasonable motive for her to do so.

The Josephs used to come here every summer when Tyler and his siblings were little, and he could remember having so much fun in here. Tyler and Zack used to wander in the woods that surrounded the plot - not too far from the house of course, dip their toes in a small creek few hundred yards away from the house and swing on the tire swing until they felt nauseous. When Tyler was 9 or 10 years old they stopped coming, and Tyler never saw the place or his great aunt again. To be honest, Tyler had forgotten her and weren't even invited to the funeral, that was until he had received a phone call from her lawyer, which is why Tyler and the lawyer were standing there right now.

Tyler's great aunt was a lovely lady, she had been in her mid to late fifties, when Tyler's last saw her. He remembered her as an eccentric and free spirited lady, who wore earrings made out of odd items, like animal bones she had found while wandering in the woods. Tyler also remembered Zack being scared and freaked out by her, even though she had been nothing but nice to Tyler and Zack. She had been kind even when the brothers had accidentally broken a valuable crystal vase while playing with a basketball indoors even though they were specifically told not to. Tyler also remembered her smelling like trees and herbs whenever she hugged him. She didn't have children of her own, so she treated Tyler and Zack as they were hers.

Tyler had asked if Zack still remembered her and their summers in the house, which he did, and he couldn't wait to visit the house again after all these years. Back then Madison had been in diapers, and Jay wasn't even born, so neither of their other siblings remembered the house or their aunt.

Tyler liked this place back then and only had good memories, but now, over twenty years later he couldn't necessarily say the same.

“Are you ready to step inside?” The lawyer rustled a set of keys in his hand. Tyler nodded and the other man placed the keys firmly into his palm. Tyler's hands were shaking from nervousness. There were multiple keys in the set, and it took him a good while to find the right one. Some of the keys, like the one that opened the front door, were newer more modern keys, but there were older rusted keys too. There was also a tiny one made out of brass that looked like it might open a small jewelry box or even a diary.

Finally the lock clicked, and Tyler pushed the door all the way open. It was dark inside, and the stale smell revealed that no doors or windows had been opened in a long, long time. Tyler stepped in and tried to find a light switch, which he did after a few blind shots in the dark.

The light revealed a spacious foyer with a withered yellowish wallpaper and dark hardwood floors covered with a thin layer of dust. The staircase was right in front of him on the left side, and it let all the way to the third floor, or the attic, like his great aunt liked to call it. Tyler remembered the dining room being the first room to the right, and the kitchen right next to it. He couldn't remember the rest of the house that well, except the upstairs bedroom and the ensuite attached to it where him and Zack used to stay in when they visited.

“Holy fuck", Tyler breathed out as he wandered farther into the house. The inside of the house didn't look too bad compared to the exterior. Everything was old, withered and covered in dust, but who ever had been there before Tyler had been smart enough to cover all the furniture with tarps. Every single object on the shelves and bureaus had been placed with thought. Nothing there seemed misplaced, except maybe Tyler himself.

When Tyler reached the living room and switched on the lights, he felt all air escape his lungs. In the left corner in front of enormous windows covered by heavy curtains, that Tyler figured gave a view to the backyard, stood a dust covered grand piano. He walked straight towards the piano, and sighed in a bliss as he ran his fingers on the polished surface. He brushed the dust on his jeans, and continued to open up the lid covering the keys and pressed a few of them with his slender fingers. The acoustics in the room were amazing, and Tyler could not wait to sit down and play until his fingers were numb. All of a sudden he wasn't so sad anymore about the fact that he couldn't fit his own piano into his car.

Three weeks ago Tyler had terminated the lease of his crappy one bedroom apartment, and moved all his stuff that didn't fit into his car, into a storage unit. His piano being the only exception. Tyler and his dad had carefully moved it into his childhood home to wait to be moved here later. He had also quit his job by flipping his boss off right in the face. Tyler wasn't exactly proud of how he had handled the situation, but it happened in a heat of the moment.

On the right end of the room, opposite to the piano was a little breakfast nook. Tyler pulled off the tarp covering the furniture, revealing a comfortable looking burgundy armchair and a dining set for one. Under a blue tarp between the piano and breakfast nook, were two petite stripe patterned sofas accompanied by a coffee table with a doily, an empty flower vase and a crystal ashtray.

Tyler was startled when he heard the lawyer clear his throat right behind him.

“Sorry to interrupt your fun, but I'm in a quite bit of rush, so if you could just sign the papers and after it's done, the place is officially yours. You read them through before, am I correct?” The lawyer shuffled through a stack of papers and placed them and a pen on top of an oak dresser. Tyler saw a glimpse of a tattoo on his wrist peeking underneath the cuff of his button up.

“Um, I did. Only thing is that I didn't quite understand all of it.” Tyler smiled innocently at the lawyer. The truth was, that Tyler knew exactly what was written on those papers and understood every single word on them. Tyler wasn't an idiot, of course he had run all the paperwork through his father's lawyer who had explained all details to the brim. His father's lawyer just happened to be a wrinkly old man with grey hair and a cataract instead of a six feet four, dark eyed MMA fighter looking lawyer with a European accent. Tyler wondered where his great aunt had even found this guy. Tyler doubted that he probably didn't advertise on the yellow pages.

The lawyer let out a small sigh of frustration, and Tyler blushed a little because on the inside he was mortified about how he was willing to dumb himself down in a hopes of getting laid. Now that's something Tyler would call desperate. They sat on the petite stripe patterned sofas, as the lawyer started talking.

For the next fifteen minutes or so Tyler listened silently as the lawyer went on and on about the details, and he only participated with a hum or a nod as a sign of an understanding. This was something Tyler was not interested in the slightest, especially when hearing all this the second time, but he could only blame himself for it.

“... which means that you are not obliged to any preconditions. So, in order to claim your inheritance, you need to sign here, here and here.” The lawyer pointed at three different lines on three different sheets of paper. Tyler took the pen and scribbled his autograph three times in the designated spots.

“Congratulations Tyler, you're a homeowner now.” The lawyer stood up and gathered all the papers and slipped them into a black plastic folder with Tyler's first, middle and last name on the top right corner along with series of numbers he suspected being a case number for filing purposes.

“Thanks.” Tyler smiled in response as he carded his fingers through his hair.

“Now I really need to get going, in order to get your money transferred today.” Tyler let out a surprised gasp. He had forgotten about the money, because the house itself had been such a shock to him. His bank balance was currently negative, because he had to stop for gas and snacks on his way here. From now on Tyler didn't need to choose between cheap ramen and cheaper ramen when grocery shopping.

Tyler followed the other man back to the front door. The lawyer slipped his sunglasses back on before turning around to face Tyler once more.

“Just out of curiosity, what are you going to do with this place?” Tyler was a little surprised, but knew that this question was currently on the lips of basically everyone he knew.

“Not sure yet. I'm staying here for now, do some cleaning, maybe some remodeling and then, I don't know. Probably sell it.” Tyler shrugged as the lawyer gave him an approving nod and a smile.

“Well, it was good to meet you Tyler. If you have any questions or anything you need, you have my number”, the lawyer then said. Tyler wasn't sure if the man was emphasizing the _anything_ part, or if he was only imagining things.

“I will”, he nodded, and could tell his olive cheeks were blushing. Tyler mentally kicked himself for being so obvious. The lawyer waved a goodbye, as he started walking towards his brand new looking shiny black BMW.

 

Tyler returned back to the house to take a better look at everything, now that it was officially his. He left the front door open and ended up opening all the downstairs windows as well as the back door leading to the backyard terrace to let the air flow, and hopefully help with the musty smell.

Before heading the second floor, he took a look into the room next to the stairs and figured it had been used as a study. The room was small and smelled like dust and old books. Just like everything there, all items in this room were placed with care and nothing seemed random. In front of the window stood an old desk with small drawers on both sides, accompanied by a wooden chair. The desk was empty and so were the drawers.

He took a closer look at the bookcases filled with hundreds and hundreds of books, and he noticed that all the books were arranged not only alphabetically but also by Dewey Decimal. He took a mental note to return to this room and take a closer look at the books. Tyler didn't consider himself as a book worm, but he sometimes read a book if it seemed interesting enough. He'd probably end up tossing most of them, but Tyler definitely wanted to see if there were anything worth saving. He opened the window before heading up the stairs to see the bedrooms.

The first room Tyler peeked in used to be his great aunt’s bedroom. It was thoughtfully organized, just like the other rooms he had seen so far. There was an ensuite attached to the room, and it had decorative floral tiles, the toilet and the sink were rosy pink. On the countertop were some toiletries, toothbrush and a perfume in a decorative bottle. Tyler chuckled a bit because it was just so tacky and continued his exploring. The closet still had some clothes hanging there, but not too many. Mostly dresses, jackets, skirts and other fancier clothes.

Tyler's great aunt had suffered a stroke three years prior, and had spent her last years in a nursing home, because she had lost her ability to speak and most of her mobility as a result. Whoever had picked her belongings to take with her to the nursing home had obviously thought that she wouldn't be needing an evening dress or high heels anymore. The idea made Tyler a bit sad, and now more than ever he regretted that he never visited. He shuffled through some of the clothes and saw that moths had eaten holes into most of them. He decided that he needed to toss them and buy a bug spray on his next trip to the store. Tyler didn't want moths eating through his favorite shirt.

The next door Tyler opened revealed a small storage room with shelves full of boxes. Some of them we're labeled, and they read stuff like “Christmas ornaments” or “craft supplies”, but others were just unmarked brown cardboard boxes. More stuff to his list of stuff to be sorted out.

Tyler was grateful that his friends had willingly agreed to drive all the way up here and help him with cleaning and going through the estate. He was already overwhelmed by all this, and it would take him weeks, or even months to do by himself. Brendon had also agreed to bring some less important stuff that Tyler couldn't fit into his car.

The next room he looked into turned out to be empty, besides a lone chair sitting by the window and a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling. This must have been the room his parent's used to stay in, but Tyler wasn't sure. He walked by the window and it gave a view to the once beautiful garden. Tyler sighed when he thought about how much work he had ahead of him in order to return everything to its old glory it deserved.

Tyler continued down the hallway towards the room him and Zack used to stay in. He grinned widely when he noticed that the door still had a small dent on the corner from the time when Zack had kicked it after finding out that Tyler had looted his secret candy stash. Tyler shimmied his iPhone out of his pocket and took a picture of the door. He sent the photo to his brother asking if he remembered what had happened to it. Tyler was still chuckling when he entered the room.

Everything was exactly as he remembered. Two single beds, one on each side of the room accompanied by bedside tables, a reading nook with a small table, armchair and a standard lamp and some closets they used to hide in and jump out of screaming in order to try to scare the other. Tyler used to sleep on the right side of the room, and Zack on the left. Both beds had shelves above them, and Tyler got a bit choked up when he noticed that there were still some toys, children's books and a Wilson basketball the brothers had left there to wait for their return next summer. Tyler had forgotten about that too. He picked up a purple Hot Wheel and noticed that it had TYLER written on it with a Sharpie in a messy handwriting of his 9 year old self.

He placed the toy back where it belonged and continued to the ensuite. It was smaller than he remembered, but it still had the bathtub they used to spend hours in splashing water all over until the bath got cold. There were no towels or toiletries on sight, which must have meant that the room hadn't been used in a long time. It could be even that Tyler and Zack had been the last guests to stay in there.

 

Tyler's phone beeped in his back pocket. It was a message from Zack.

 

_Do I?? You still owe me half a bag of sour Skittles and a Mars bar!_

_It was barely a handful of Skittles and a wrapper of a Mars bar…_

 

Tyler sat down on the bed when saw that Zack was typing a message right away.

 

_I didn't know you were a thief AND a liar!_

_So, how's everything in Villa Tyler?_

 

_The exterior and the garden are pretty bad, but the house is exactly like I remembered plus twenty years of wear and tear and a thick layer of dust._

_Doesn't sound too bad, you need to send some pictures when you have time. I bet mom is dying to see what the place looks like these days._

 

_Yeah, I will. After I do some cleaning. I'm not even finished with checking out all the rooms yet._

_I'm actually in the room we used to stay right now. Remember the stuff we left here back in the day? It's still here, unmoved._

 

_No way! That's so cool! I'm so visiting you when my summer vacation starts! But now I need to get back to work._

 

_Have fun!_

 

_You too, bro!_

 

Tyler shoved his phone back into his pocket and took another glance at the room before heading out to see the next one. It was on the end of the hallway, and it turned out to be another bedroom slash living room slash room. Only it was larger than the other ones, and it was unfurnished. He tried to switch on the lights, but turned out the lightbulb was busted. He made yet another mental note to get it fixed before heading back to the staircase and to the third floor.

The attic turned out to be a complete mess. There were boxes on top of boxes and furniture everywhere. The room was so full of stuff that it was nearly impossible to get around without knocking stuff over. But the space itself was breathtaking. First of all it was huge, and it's large window gave a view to the feral garden. The hardwood flooring was different here from the rest of the house. It was darker, almost black and the floorboards were less polished and looked more like raw wood. The ceiling narrowed down to the walls, and it had skylights on the each side of the ridgepole. They gave the room a beautiful lighting from the early evening sun, and Tyler was stunned. Tyler didn't remember ever seeing the attic before, but he totally understood why. Tyler and Zack would have been able to do a lot of destruction here in no time.

Even though it would be a ton of extra work, Tyler decided that this would be his bedroom, and the cleanup would start from there. He moved a few boxes in order to get a better access to see what was in them, but they were all taped shut.

He didn't want to go all the way downstairs to find a knife or a box cutter, so he chose the sharpest key from his new set and used it to slice the box open. This had to be done at some point, so he could as well start right now. It turned out to be full of linen, and without going through them any better he decided to toss the whole box, remembering all the moth eaten clothes in the closet.

After an hour and multiple boxes later he stopped dead on his tracks when he heard a loud thud coming from downstairs. He didn't hear any cars coming, which he definitely would have, since all the doors and windows were open. Also nobody lived within a walking distance, so hearing noises and somebody possibly being inside the house made him a bit uneasy. He thought that maybe something had fallen over due to the draught, but still couldn't shake the nervous feeling he had. Ghost or a bloodthirsty axe murderer were the last thing he needed right now.

He sat on the floor in silence for good five minutes carefully listening if he could hear anything else, but the house was dead silent. Suddenly his phone beeped and vibrated in his pocket and it managed to scare the living crap out of him making him almost jump out of his skin. His heart was still racing when he wiped his fingerprint over the sensor to unlock the screen and saw that is was a message from his great aunt's lawyer.

 

_Hey Tyler! Your money has now been transferred, and should be on your bank account by tomorrow morning. If not, please contact me as soon as possible._

 

_Okay, I'll let you know. :) Thanks for everything!_

 

Tyler's breathing was still slightly hasty and shallow when he muted his phone to prevent him from getting another heart attack and placed it on the floor next to him. He then continued to sort through a box he had in front of him. It was packed to the brim with random items and knick-knacks like a sewing kit, some pins, a tiny planting pot, fishing line and an ancient lipstick. Few boxes ago he had figured it would take him forever to go through every item in every box, so he just ended up tossing the whole box and moved onto the next one.

Tyler must have been in the attic for hours going trough box after box, because it was starting to get dark outside, and despite the skylights it was getting harder to see what he was doing. Even though he had been there for so long, he had hardly made a dent into the mound of stuff. Tyler realized that he hadn't eaten anything since this morning and his stomach was growling. What he also realized was that he had left his groceries in his car that had been sitting in a direct sun all day.

 

He rushed down to his car and grabbed the grocery bag, backpack and his laptop case and hurried to the kitchen. He started eating what was left of his breakfast burrito, and started shoving the rest of the food items into a warm fridge, because of course the fridge was unplugged. Turned out he had to move the entire fridge in order to reach the plug. He also plugged in the microwave, that had definitely seen better days and was in desperate need of replacement.

While eating he dug a notebook and a pen from his backpack and started to write a shopping list of items he needed to buy, like bug spray, trash bags, lightbulbs and any food that hadn't been forgotten in a 200 degree car for a whole day.

Tyler still had his mouth full of food when he took a quick tour around to close all the windows he had opened earlier and to pull the heavy curtains back on to cover them. Tyler also wanted to find out what had possibly caused the thud he had heard earlier, but couldn't find any items that were misplaced or knocked over. He figured it must have been a bird hitting a window or something.

After his meal he decided to bring all his stuff inside before it got too dark outside. The premises looked somewhat creepy in the last rays of the sunset with all the trees and bushes casting eerie shadows everywhere, and Tyler had to admit that the idea of staying alone in an old house like this didn't seem that fun anymore now, that the night was getting inevitably closer.

 

When everything was inside the house, Tyler locked the front door behind him. It's not like he was scared or anything, but it gave him a little more sense of security.

He hadn't even decided where he would be sleeping for the night, so he left his suitcases, duffle bag, pillow and some boxes with his clothes and other necessities, like linen and towels on the bottom of the stairs. He carried his television to the living room and left everything else by the wall in the foyer. He would sort them out later.

Tyler wasn't exactly the most organized mover. He had just hastily shoved stuff in the boxes and labeled them vaguely as “kitchen stuff", “bathroom stuff”, “electronics” and so on. He knew it would bite him in the ass later, but didn't care enough back then.

He set up the TV and his wireless router on a dresser, and used his Chromecast to put on an episode of Family Guy to kill the overwhelming silence that surrounded him. He was used to living in an apartment building, so complete silence was a foreign concept to him and it made him nervous. Tyler hated silence, because it gave him too much time to think. Thinking always lead him getting too deep into his head, which leaded into anxiety and in worst cases eventually into a panic attack.

 

Tyler kept himself busy the whole night and was exhausted when he sat on the piano chair after carefully wiping the instrument with a damp cloth. It looked even better without all the dust covering it, and Tyler couldn't help but open the lid and let his fingers flow on the keys.

He sat there playing for a good while, until a low chime of a bell startled Tyler, making him jump on his seat as it echoed through the rooms. Tyler stood up and walked towards the sound coming from the dining room to see the culprit of his most recent almost heart attack. It was a massive grandfather clock made out of dark wood. It had decorative carvings on the hood and the ivory colored dial had roman numerals on it. It showed midnight.

Tyler huffed in frustration for being such a scaredy cat, as he exited the room to go to sleep for the night. He turned off all the lights and used the flashlight on his iPhone to navigate up the stairs and into the bedroom him and Zack used to stay in.

He had already made himself a bed earlier, so all he needed to do was to take a quick shower and brush his teeth before he was securely tucked under the covers with his phone browsing through his social media accounts and responding to his friends messages.

Even though he felt exhausted from inside out, Tyler laid there in darkness and silence wide awake for a long time pondering about the odd twist his life had taken in the past few months. He still had hard time believing it all, despite the fact that he was indeed laying there in a somewhat uncomfortable bed in his own house right now.

His brain was a complete mess as he finally drifted into a peaceful dreamless sleep.


	2. SECULAR HAZE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was writing part 4 for this in a plane today and pretended that I was doing something that's actually important. I had my headphones on and chuckled to my self every once in a while like a crazy person, because that's basically what I am. 
> 
> So if you were on the same flight as me, I'm not sorry.

“Dude, please tell me you banged that lawyer", Brendon said before even saying hello, and threw his duffle bag into the corner of the entrance hallway.  
“Umm, no. And it's good to see you too, Beebo. Feel free to put your stuff wherever”, Tyler said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. Brendon walked around and peeked quickly into every room to feed his curiousness.  
“I Googled him up, and I gotta say I was suspicious when you described him, but damn”, Brendon said finally approaching Tyler to give him a tight bear hug. “Did you even try?” Brendon asked with his signature eyebrow raise.  
“No, Brendon. Not all of us are sex and drug driven ADD cases like you are.” This was actually a small white lie, but Tyler figured it would be easier this way in order to avoid an awkward cross-examination from his friend. 

Brendon kissed Tyler on the temple like what Tyler just said was a compliment, and squeezed him once more for the good measure.

Tyler had texted the lawyer the previous day to let him know that his bank account now had six figures instead of negative three, and to thank him once more. He had responded by asking how Tyler had been settling into the house and if he felt lonely yet, accompanied by a winking emoji. Tyler hadn't responded back yet, not knowing what to say, or better yet how he wanted to say it.

Instead he had fired up his laptop and placed an order to a queen sized bed with a beautiful black leather headboard he had already tested out in a furniture shop back in Columbus. He had chosen it to be delivered overnight even though it cost extra couple hundred bucks, only because he could. Tyler heard his mom's voice in the back of his skull nagging about spending the money wisely, but he shrugged it off merely because for the first time in his life he could afford to do something like this.

All the other guys wouldn't be arriving until the next day, and Tyler had been planning on dragging Brendon furniture shopping today to the next city over, which Brendon consented surprisingly easily claiming that Tyler truly needed his help.

Tyler was no decorator by all means, but he liked to think that he had a descent eye for what looked good and what didn't. He also had the best asset when it came to stuff like this, Brendon. He was brutally honest with his opinions, and wasn't afraid to tell if something was butt ugly.

Tyler had a clear vision of what he wanted the house to look like, he had clean and simple lines in mind, white furniture with a hint of color here and there. Kitchen would get black marble countertops and brushed steel appliances with white high gloss cabins. He had spent endless hours surfing online looking for furniture, art, decorations, wallpapers and kitchen appliances he liked, and had a mile long list of websites and links bookmarked on his browser.

Honestly he was more excited about this than he liked to admit. He had already decided that his bedroom, the attic, would be emptied out, new furniture in, painted, new wallpaper on the window wall and ready for him to move in by the end of the week. It would be a lot of work, but with five of his best friends helping him, it shouldn't be a problem.

Tyler had rented a huge dumpster to help them with getting rid of all the junk. He had pondered with the idea of trying to sell some of the better stuff through Craigslist, but figured it would be too much of a trouble, considering everything else that he had on his plate. Besides, who knew what kind of creeps a Craigslist ad would attract.

He had asked his mom if she wanted something specific to keep, but she had refused politely saying that it was Tyler's property now, and he was free to do whatever he wanted with it.

“Are you ready to spend some serious dollars?” Brendon asked and rubbed his hands together in excitement.  
“Do normal people talk like that, or is it just you?” Tyler asked sarcastically. Brendon only responded with his middle finger, and a sunny smile.  
“In all seriousness. What are we looking for? Do we have a plan? A concept? Color scheme? Anything?” Brendon was visibly thrilled and he moved around like he was having fire ants in his skinny jeans.

“I think we need to start with beds and some linen. There are only four single beds in the house, and by tomorrow night there will be six of us, including two couples very much in love.” Tyler explained while he headed towards living room to turn on his laptop.  
“Lame! Don't you dare to tell me that I woke up at 6am today and drove 200 miles to buy BEDS for Peterick, Joseph!” Brendon exclaimed and fake gagged as he followed Tyler. Tyler rolled his eyes and gave the other a poisonous glance signaling that he already regretted asking Brendon to help him.

“We also need to pick up some paint and wallpaper samples for my room. My room also needs a light fixture, nightstands, a rug of some sort, drapes, dresser… Basically a shitload of stuff. I'm not expecting us to find everything today and I'm more than willing to order most of the items online.” Brendon seemed a bit more interested at this point.

“I do think that IKEA is the best place to buy the beds, since they don't have to be super fancy or expensive because they're for quests, aaaaand because I already spent 3500 dollars on mine.”  
“$3500? As in US currency?” Brendon shrieked in disbelief. “What the hell is it made out of? It's made of gold, right? It has to be.”  
“Yes, Beebo. It's made out of gold, sapphires and horns of tortured unicorns. Also a tiny hint of black leather.” Tyler chuckled as he quickly added a few more items to his shopping list. It was Brendon’s turn to roll his eyes at Tyler, who pretended that Brendon did not exist.

 

The day didn't end up being a total bust. Tyler and Brendon had lots of fun fooling around in Ikea and getting some weird looks from some of the other shoppers. They ate some amazing sushi for lunch, and were able to find a lot of necessary items for the house. They bought beautiful bedside tables for Tyler's room and a breathtaking designer light fixture that casted shadows of tree branches on the walls, floors and ceiling.

They also had a bunch of wallpaper samples, which they were now putting up on the wall with some Scotch tape. The room didn't give the wallpapers justice with all the junk lying around, and the lighting was all wrong but despite that, both Brendon and Tyler stood there with pondering expressions.

“I like the one with all the geometric shapes”, Brendon then said and rubbed his chin. Tyler knew he was going to say that, because it's the one Brendon had chosen himself and Tyler only agreed to take the sample just to please him.  
“It still looks like an acid trip gone south to me.” Tyler tilted his head to the left and pursed his lips. In his head he was thinking that he probably wouldn't be able to sleep with that busy pattern on the wall. Also looking at it made him slightly nauseous and reminded him of a kaleidoscope.

“How about this one?” Tyler asked and pointed at matte black wallpaper with massive silvery waves on it. It looked better back in the store, because the waves had a slight shimmer on them and the lighting in Home Depot had been fluorescent and very much blinding.  
“I mean it's not bad, but there's no wow or b’dazzle in it" Brendon said and squinted his eyes.  
“I forgot you used to live in Vegas”, Tyler snorted. Brendon flipped him off, before turning back to the samples.

“Maybe we should choose the paint color for the other walls first”, Brendon suggested.  
“Yeah.. I already did that", Tyler said and smirked in self satisfaction.  
“Bullshit. When?”  
“While you were taking a leak. Lo and behold, K503 - Winter Palace.” Tyler dug the paint sample card out of his pocket and handed it to Brendon.  
“So… White?” Brendon asked and quirked his eyebrow.  
“Winter Palace", Tyler corrected him.  
“So you chose this white over the twenty other shades of white you picked up. What about the colors I chose?”  
“Acid trip", Tyler simply responded.

 

By the next afternoon Brendon had gotten enough of paint samples and furniture so he hopped into his car with a promise to be back in a few hours, probably to hook up with a guy from Grindr he had been messaging with all night yesterday. Tyler didn't really mind being alone and breathe for a second. As much as he loved Brendon, he could definitely be a little extra. He was sure that Brendon hadn't been quiet for longer than three minutes since his arrival. Tyler could swear he heard Brendon babbling in his sleep last night.

Tyler was sitting on the piano stool, his left hand absentmindedly pressing down random keys as he texted Brendon a shopping list for groceries including three different brands of cereal, beer and a bunch of other stuff to keep all of their friends happy during their stay, hoping he didn't forget anything crucial. 

Tyler put his phone on the top of the piano, in hopes that he wouldn't be needing it for the rest of the day. By far he had been on the phone with a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, a landscaper and three different people from city hall because he was trying to get a copy of the house’s blueprints. Turns out the state law says that he needs some notarized documents to prove his ownership to the house in order to get them, so he also called the lawyer who promised to take care of it and email all necessary paperwork to him as soon as possible. He had also had some furniture delivered, so the boxes, guest beds and his brand new bed and the leather headboard were resting in the foyer waiting to be carried to their rightful places.

He closed his eyes and let his fingers flow on the piano keys. After a while he started to sing a song he wrote a few years back. It had a melancholic undertone in it, despite the fact that it sounded somewhat cheery at first. Tyler let his whole body relax, as he let all of his anxiety and stress pour out of him. His singing wasn't perfect due to lack of practice during the past couple of weeks, but he didn't let it bother him. It just felt so good to ventilate through music.

His playing was interrupted by a faint knock coming from behind him. It was so faint that Tyler wasn't even sure if he heard right. He stopped what he was doing and tilted his head a bit to listen if the knocking would happen again, and merely few seconds later it did. 

The knocking came from the front door, and Tyler huffed in frustration as he stood up to go and open the door for Brendon who most likely had forgotten something. as he opened the door, Tyler was ready to give Brendon a whole speech of how door handles worked and how easy opening a door is, since the door was unlocked.

Only it wasn't Brendon standing on the porch.

Tyler was standing face to face with a smiling guy with blood red hair, nose ring and a colorful tattoo sleeve. He stared at the man in awe for a second or two too long, and his cheeks flushed when he realized that.  
“C-can I help you with something?” Tyler asked warily without knowing what else to do or say.  
“Yeah actually. I'm Josh and umm… I heard my mom talk about you inheriting the house, so I thought it would be fun to stop by and say hi. So… Hi!” Josh smiled and offered his hand for Tyler to shake. Tyler took the offer, but when he touched Josh’s hand, he felt a small shock, like static electricity on his fingers.  
“Josh?” Tyler breathed out in disbelief. He definitely remembered Josh now. They had met on the last summer the Josephs spent here almost twenty years ago.

Josh’s parents had left Josh for Tyler's great aunt to babysit for a day to go to a wedding next town over. The two of them had played and had so much fun together all day, that Zack had gotten jealous, felt excluded and been cranky and pouty all day, eventually leaving Tyler and Josh alone in the woods.

The two of them spent the day wading in the creek, sharing secrets and joking around all day, like they had been best friends for years. They had also found a dead bird while playing hide and seek, and Tyler had felt an agonizing sorrow inside him before starting to cry profusely. Josh had tried to console him by pulling Tyler in for a tight hug and let him sob against his shoulder. Tyler's tears had gotten the shoulder of his t-shirt all wet, but Josh hadn't seem like he minded, all he wanted to do was to make Tyler happy again. 

Tyler's crying had continued for a good while, until Josh had suggested them burying the bird and giving it a proper funeral. Still sobbing, Tyler had nodded while wiping his eyes and runny nose onto the hem of his shirt.

He also had a cloudy memory of a ten year old Josh kissing him under a linden tree after they had buried the bird near the creek, under a neatly stacked pile of rocks and freshly picked wildflowers.

Zack had seen the whole scene, and casually told everyone about it over the dinner. Tyler now knew that Zack didn't have malicious intents when he told that, but a childish need to share something interesting and anomalous he had witnessed.

Neither Josh or Tyler had understood how what they had done was somehow wrong, but by the way Tyler got scolded by his parents afterwards, when Josh’s parents had picked him up, it obviously was something really bad. That day Tyler was pushed so deep in to the closet that he didn't see real sunlight until thirteen years later when he was twenty three.

“I- umm, I'm um…” Is it possible to forget your own name? If so, Tyler had just done that.  
“Tyler, I know.” Josh helped him out, and chuckled a bit at Tyler's awkwardness. Tyler was embarrassed for his lack of social skills in surprising situations like this.  
“Oh… Yeah. Do you want to come in?” Tyler was still staring at Josh, but he couldn't help it. His inner voice was screaming for him to not be such a creeper, but his body didn't listen.  
“Yeah. That would be cool.” Tyler moved from the door frame to let Josh in. 

When Josh stepped into the foyer, he let out a small whistle.  
“Nothing has changed here in twenty years.” He took a quick glance into the living room and Tyler followed right behind him.  
“I'm actually planning on doing some remodeling before selling it”, Tyler said as Josh stood in front of the windows.  
Josh gasped before he started to cough uncontrollably.  
“Oh shit, it's the damn dust everywhere even though I vacuumed and dusted everything twice”, Tyler apologized as Josh tried to get a hold of himself.

“You're going to sell it?” Josh looked adorable with raised eyebrows and a surprised look on his face.  
“Not right now, but eventually, it's not like I'm going to live here for the rest of my life”, Tyler explained and shifted nervously from one foot to another. 

The boys took a quick tour around the house and Tyler realized that being around Josh was just as easy now as it was back in the day despite his own awkwardness. Josh made Tyler laugh and the other way around and as cliché it might sound, it felt like they had been friends all these years.

“Do you want something to drink?” Tyler asked when the boys were heading back downstairs.  
“Sure, if it's not too much of a trouble.” Tyler made a little ‘pfft' sound and shook his head. Josh giggled as he followed the brown haired boy to the kitchen.

“You still live here?” Tyler asked as he opened the fridge and grabbed two silver and blue cans of Red Bull off the shelf and offered Josh the other.  
“No, I'm just sort of visiting. I moved to LA years ago.” Josh sat on the kitchen counter with an ice cold drink on his hand. Tyler felt a small hint of disappointment within.  
“LA, really? That's a big city for a small town boy”, he then remarked and grinned at the other boy.  
“Yeah, it's definitely something else", Josh sighed, and for a second Tyler was sure he saw a hint of something off in his eyes, and thought that he had said something wrong. Merely a moment later Josh was smiling at him again. Both of them took small sips of their drinks as a comfortable silence fell between them.

“I'm actually in a band", he then said and Tyler's eyes lit up instantly. Josh noticed this and he bit his lower lip slightly.  
“Sick! Are you any good?” Tyler quirked his eyebrow in a teasing manner, making Josh chuckle and smile widely.  
“I like to think so. We're not super famous or anything, but it pays the bills most of the time and it's what I love t...” 

Tyler stared at Josh in awe, as he shared other little details. Tyler found out that Josh played the drums, which totally made sense when taking a closer look at him. His graceful posture, slim yet muscular upper body, his arms… Tyler found himself wondering if the red haired man would mind if he just randomly started licking him, forgetting to listen what Josh was saying.

“Tyler? Is everything okay?” Josh sounded genuinely worried as he waved his hand in front of Tyler's face.  
“Oh yeah.. Oh! Yeah, yeah. I'm just a bit tired", Tyler lied and took a big gulp of his energy drink trying to hide his blushing cheeks.  
“Shit, you almost scared me. Your eyes went all glassy and for a moment I thought you were going to seizure or something.” Tyler was officially mortified as Josh let out a long sigh of relief.

“Trouble sleeping?” Josh asked and hopped down from the counter and took a few calculated steps towards the brown haired boy. Tyler was frozen in his spot and he was only able to nod as an answer. Yet again he was lying, because he had been sleeping like a baby for the two nights he had spent here, which was totally out of character of him.  
“I guess it's normal, considering everything that's going on in your life right now", Josh said sympathetically, almost whispering and gently brushed a tuft of Tyler's hair aside from his face. Tyler swallowed nervously as he stared at Josh with his brown doe eyes.

“Or… Is it me?” Josh smirked and started to run his thumb gently down Tyler's face, brushing his cheekbone for a second before continuing it's trail down to his jawline. Tyler let out a small sigh as he leaned his face slightly towards Josh’s touch.  
“It's definitely you", Tyler breathed before leaning in, catching up the few inches between them and pressing his lips against Josh’s.

Josh didn't even have time to react to the kiss, before Tyler hastily pulled himself away and stumbled a few clumsy steps backwards. He hit the small of his back on the corner of the dining table letting out a quiet ‘ow', before Josh hurried to his aid and grabbed his arm before he fell down.

“Josh, I'm so so sorry. I don't know why I did that", Tyler whined in both pain and deep embarrassment. Tyler tried to cover his face in his hands but before he could do so, Josh took his hands and intertwined their fingers.  
“S’ okay”, Josh said in a hushed tone.  
“No, it's not. I'm sorry, I don't- I just-, Josh believe me, I didn't-”  
“Tyler, shut up", Josh said in a stern voice and immediately Tyler stopped talking and shut his mouth. He didn't have enough time to get offended before Josh placed his hand on the back of Tyler's head and pulled him in for a kiss.

It all happened so fast and felt so good, that Tyler's eyes were wide and he was slightly out of breath when they pulled apart. 

“I think I might have cried over you once or twice back in the day. I thought I would never see you again.” Josh admitted and carded his fingers through his bright hair. His left hand was still casually resting on Tyler's waist, and the brown haired was more than aware of that. Tyler let out a fake mocking ‘aww', and finally it was Josh’s turn to blush to the brim.  
“Sorry for whatever that was", Josh mumbled and made cute gestures with his hands. The spot on Tyler's waist where Josh’s hand rested just moments ago felt cold somehow, even though it was a hot summer day.  
“I don't really mind. In fact, I started it, so no harm done.” Both of them let out a small sigh simultaneously and it made both of them laugh. Tyler had hard time wrapping his mind around how easy being around Josh was.

“So you don't think it was too fast or hasty or anything?” Josh furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips a bit.  
“I don't know, maybe. But technically that wasn't even our first kiss.” Tyler remarked amused, while he leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.  
“You still remember that?” Josh asked in a surprised tone, as his cheeks flushed into a deep shade of red yet again.  
“How could I not remember it?” Tyler shrugged and gave the other man a crooked smile. “I mean, it was the best kiss I ever had.” Tyler said only half jokingly. Josh chuckled at that.  
“The best? You must have met really lousy kissers then.” Josh said and gave Tyler a smile that made his heart take two or three extra beats. Tyler casually shrugged his shoulders again and smirked a bit. Josh rolled his eyes, but laughed a bit revealing a perfect set of white teeth. Tyler found it cute how his eyes squinted when he laughed.  
“The best.” Tyler simply said. “Until a few moments ago.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was thinking if I should make the chapters shorter and post more often, or keep them longer like the first two have been. What do you guys think?
> 
> Also, still not sorry.


	3. MONSTRANCE CLOCK

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a fun chapter to write. That's all, enjoy!

All the boys were scattered around the kitchen for breakfast. Patrick was browsing his phone absentmindedly and slowly nibbled a corner of a half burned toast with jelly on top of it, while Pete was spooning cinnamon toast crunch into his mouth and staring at his boyfriend in awe. If you looked closely enough at Pete’s eyes, you'd see tiny hearts floating around in them, just like in cartoons.

Alex was resting his head on Jack’s shoulder and looked like he was fast asleep, as Jack ate his cereal in silence. The two of them had arrived around 4am last night, and only had few hours of sleep. Jack explained that Alex was a nervous flyer, and he never slept on a plane. Also he had insisted that he would drive from the airport to Tyler's house, so he was extra tired and fussy.

Brendon sat on the counter smiling and humming a unrecognizable song as he was shoving two or three Pringles into his mouth at once and sipping coffee every once in a while. He was obviously having the muncies, which explained his unhealthy breakfast choice. 

Tyler looked around the room and smiled at his friends and felt blessed to have them around to help him. All of them had been excited and agreed to come without any hesitation. Jack and Alex even flew in all the way from LA.

“Shit..” Tyler mumbled to himself as his eyes hit the grandfather clock that had startled him a few nights back and noticed that it had stopped. It was all quiet, neither of the hands moved, and the silver pendulum just stood still. The time on it showed 12.01, but Tyler couldn't tell if it had stopped during daytime or night.

“What is it?” Pete lifted his head and looked at Tyler slightly worried. Tyler stood up and walked up to the clock.  
“It has stopped..” All of the other guys shifted on their seats to look at Tyler and the massive clock. Pete chuckled and turned back to his breakfast.

“Why are you so surprised? It's been standing there for God knows how long without being wound”, Pete said as he slurped the remaining milk from his bowl.  
“What?” Tyler raised his eyebrows and turned to stare at Pete.

“You realize it needs to be wound up like every few days, right?” Pete had a slightly amused look on his face. Tyler didn't know how Pete knew this, but what he knew was that that clock had been running just a few days prior.  
“My grandma has a similar one. Honestly the chime is kinda creepy if you ask me, so better keep it that way. You remember that clock, right Pattycake?", Pete chuckled as he wrapped his arm around Patrick, who lifted his gaze from his phone and nodded, but looked unamused by the nickname.

Tyler's heart sank as he realized that the clock had not only been running, but it had also chimed once, the first night he spent there. He decided that he would keep quiet about his prior experience with the clock and instead just shrugged his shoulders and everybody went back to their breakfasts.

Tyler tried his best to forget the clock and let his mind wander back to Josh as he ate his breakfast in silence. The red haired man had been filling his thoughts since he waved a goodbye and his silhouette disappeared into the woods. Josh told Tyler that there was a path that took a shortcut to the Dun premises, and he solemnly promised to visit Tyler again soon. Tyler wondered what was ‘soon’ for Josh, and kicked himself mentally for not asking his phone number. 

Only fifteen minutes after Josh left, Brendon had returned from his adventure with four full bags of groceries in the back seat. The two of them had spent the rest of the night cleaning and organizing. Tyler's brand new dishwasher had been running on full steam, because Tyler insisted they washed every single kitchen item before he would use them to cook food or eat out of.

“So, what's the plan?” Patrick asked and returned Tyler back to earth from dreamland. All of the others looked at Tyler in anticipation too, even Alex who still looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep. All the attention made Tyler's cheeks blush. Honestly he hadn't had the time to think of a proper plan, so he had to wing it on the spot.

Tyler explained his plans on making the attic his bedroom, and how he wanted it emptied out as soon as possible. He received approving hums and nods, as he told the guys he wanted to at least check inside all of the boxes there, so nothing valuable gets tossed. Tyler had no sentimental value to any of the stuff, but he wanted to be sure.

 

Two hours in the attic and the four of them had made a remarkable progress in emptying it. The floor was now visible, and Tyler loved the way the dark floorboards looked and felt underneath his bare feet. All of them were scattered around the room, each with their own pile of boxes as music was playing on low volume through a bluetooth speaker.

“Guys? You better come see this!” Brendon said all of a sudden and motioned for the others to come closer. All three of them gathered around him as he pointed his finger towards a box filled with packing peanuts and bubble wrap. Something gold colored peeked out and glimmered in the dim light.  
“Dude, it's just a decorative clock”, Pete shook his head and was getting ready to return to his corner of the room.  
“No, you dipshit. Just look!” Brendon took a few steps backwards to make room for the others as they took a step closer to the box.

“Holy shit! It’s running backwards!” Patrick pointed out, and as Tyler took a closer look at the gold plated clock, and was surprised to see that the seconds hand really did run backwards. The boys stared at the clock in silence, and heard that it almost sounded like it sait tock-tick, instead of normal tick-tock. It was odd and eerie sound that made chills run down everybody’s spine.  
“That’s the creepiest thing ever”, Brendon said and took a few small steps backwards to get as far away from the clock as possible without seeming too cowardly.  
“Don’t be an idiot, Brendon”, Patrick rolled his eyes at the black haired man. “Some dumbass just obviously assembled the mechanism backwards”, he explained and the others nodded in agreement. Tyler kept his eyes locked with the clock, and realized, that the the minute hand also ran slowly backwards.  
“Just sayin’” Brendon lifted his hands in the air. Pete also seemed a bit wary about the clock, and Tyler could tell it creeped him out too. Otherwise he would crack dumb jokes about a blind clocksmith or something.

“So, what do you want to do with it?” Patrick finally asked, when the silence between the four men had grown too long. Tyler pondered for a while if the clock was too fragile to move around.  
“Let's just leave it on here, so I remember to call someone and ask if they can fix it”, Tyler then said calmly and stood up from the floor. His knees started to hurt.  
“Dude, no way! Just throw it away”, Brendon ran his fingers through his hair as his other hand felt his pockets frantically in order to find a lighter to light his blunt with.  
“Not in the house”, Tyler said firmly, and gave Brendon a meaningful look.  
“What the hell is with you guys and the clocks in this house?” Brendon questioned before barging out from the attic.

“What’s up with her?” Jack asked as he and Alex rushed into the room. Tyler heard Brendon shout ‘Ha ha! Fuck you, Barakat!’ on his way downstairs. Alex and Jack had volunteered to carry all the junk boxes downstairs to the dumpster. Only this was the first time anyone had seen them in over an hour. Alex’s hair was a mess and Jack's fly was open which made it painfully obvious what the two of them had been doing downstairs. 

“What did we miss?” Alex asked as he navigated between boxes towards the others. Jack followed him while tugging his fly back up, cheeks covered in crimson.  
“Brendon got freaked out by an inanimate object", Patrick scoffed and stood up from the floor. Alex took a quick look into the box that everybody else were gathered around.  
“Oh wow, cool clock! Why is it running backwards, tho?” Patrick, Pete and Tyler stared at him like he was an imbecile.  
“What?” Alex asked when he noticed the way the others looked at him.  
“That's what we're wondering. You would know, if you didn't just spent half an hour on your knees sucking Jack's dick.” Pete said what all of them were thinking, before he lifted a box and started to carry it out of the room.  
“Wh-whaaat? What are you talking about?” Alex tried to play innocent and scratched his head blushing visibly.  
“There's still dust on your knees, man", Pete chuckled before he went on his way. Alex and Jack glanced at each other in a deep state of panic and embarrassment. Alex desperately tried to brush off the dust from his jeans.  
“Oh yes daddy, pull my hair, just like that!” Pete shouted from the hallway and cackled on his way downstairs.  
“I hate you guys!” Alex screamed before barging out of the room. Tyler heard him slam a door shut one floor below.  
“I better...you know...go after him… Cool clock though!” Jack mumbled and showed two thumbs up before he too exited the room. 

After Jack was gone, Tyler and Patrick were the only ones left in the attic.  
“So.. Do you have an urge to barge out of here dramatically too, or should we keep going?” Tyler asked and smirked at the other man who was already back at rummaging through a large box.  
“Nah, I'm good", Patrick chuckled as both of them continued to work in silence.

 

The next two days went on a haze as the crew cleaned, painted, assembled and moved furniture around. On Friday night everybody except Alex were sitting on the floor of the freshly painted attic sipping beers. Alex was standing by the window, because he had a perfect white handprint of wet paint on the ass of his jeans, almost like Uruk-hai in Lord of the Rings. Jack on the other hand was sporting white paint on his face and hair. The incident had almost escalated into a full on war, until Tyler had stopped it by grabbing Jack by his earring and Alex by his hair and dragged them out of the room. The two of them had been missing for 20 minutes until both of them returned with disturbingly satisfied expressions on their face.

Pete had gotten visibly jealous of Alex's and Jack's fresh and fun relationship and tried to prompt Patrick into some fun too, but Patrick had stopped it right away by telling Pete to stop being a baby. Pete had sulked and given Patrick the silent treatment for almost an hour, which was actually a relief for all of them, but it didn't have any effect on his boyfriend, so he eventually gave up.

Tyler wasn't used to being around other people, even his friends, all the time and he was exhausted both physically and mentally. He still wasn't any closer to picking the wallpaper, all of his furniture were still waiting in the foyer and all the other rooms remained untouched. Brendon would be leaving tomorrow, and rest of the guys would be gone too in two short days and then Tyler would be left on his own. Even Josh hadn't bothered to visit even though he had promised. Tyler felt an overwhelming panic rising it's ugly head, and there was a lump in his throat. 

“I can't do this", he whispered as hot tears started to burn in the corners of his eyes. No one seemed to pay any attention to Tyler, because they were all laughing at something funny Jack had just said, except Alex, who rushed to his friends side and crouched next to him.  
“Tyler, sweetie? What's wrong?” Alex carded Tyler's brown locks, pressed his cheek on his temple and whispered into his ear trying not to raise too much attention but failing at it. The laughter had died down and the room had gone silent, as all of the guys were looking at him in worry.  
“This is all too much", Tyler choked on his words as plump tears started to roll down his tanned cheeks. “How the fuck did I ever think that I could actually do this? I can't do any of this alone.”

By this point all of the boys had gathered closer to Tyler. Brendon sat behind him and wrapped his arms around Tyler's trembling body and started humming in a low tone. Alex continued to run his fingers through Tyler's brown hair, letting his nails gently scratch on his scalp every once in a while, like he was petting a cat. Jack leaned his head against Tyler's shoulder, Patrick took Tyler's hand and brushed the smooth skin with his thumb and Pete simply rested his hand on Tyler's knee. Five different gestures signaling Tyler how loved he was.

Tyler was so overwhelmed by emotions, that he was full on bawling now. This wasn't cute little weeping, but full on Kim Kardashian style ugly crying. 

None of them were trying to talk to him or make him stop crying. Tyler's friends simply sat there with him and let him cry out his emotions out until he was merely sobbing and hiccuping every now and then.  
“Feel any better?” Patrick asked in a compassionate tone. Tyler shook his head and sniffled, because his nose shad started to run too. He wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his hoodie, but as soon as the old tears were gone, new ones started to run down.

“You know, you don't have to do all this, right?” Pete then asked in a hushed tone and looked straight into Tyler's soul. Tyler nodded. “But do you want to do it anyways?” Tyler nodded again.  
“Because I know that you can. Look around you, for fucks sake.” Tyler furrowed his eyebrows not fully understanding what Pete meant. “You got four of the most useless guys in the northern hemisphere, and Patrick, to help you out, and in two short days you have one full room almost finished on schedule.” Tyler chuckled at this. Brendon mumbled in disapproval, but Jack and Alex nodded in agreement.  
“Actually two days ahead of my schedule”, Tyler said with a hint of a smile on his face. “But still, I couldn't have done any of this without you guys. There's no way I can do this alone.”

“Pffft. Of course you can. Besides, I can drive down here every once in a while to help out, and I bet all the other clowns will too.” Brendon motioned towards the others.  
“Yeah, because that's exactly what Tyler needs. A lazy ass stoner with a huge forehead to mooch off of him", Pete rolled his eyes and received a venomous look from Brendon.  
“For your information, it's called a model’s forehead", Brendon said an wiped a stray strand of hair off of it.  
“Why? Because there's enough room for seven supermodels to live on it?” Pete asked in a mocking tone. At this point Tyler burst into a loud laughter and Brendon nudged him pretending to be offended.

“Am I the only one who thinks we should move Tyler's stuff in here?” Patrick asked after the laughing had died down, as he stood up from the floor and offered his hand to Tyler so he could literally scoop him up from the floor.  
“Oh yeah! We should definitely do that”, Jack said, and all the others nodded or hummed in agreement.  
“Guys, it's getting really late", Tyler argued, but none of them were listening. Patrick was already giving them orders, telling Pete and Jack to carry in the mattress as Brendon and Alex were assigned to bring in the headboard. Patrick was a good and smart leader, and Tyler couldn't help but chuckle at how he had separated Jack and Alex, definitely not by an accident.  
“You and me can start bringing in all the small stuff, ok?” Patrick wrapped his arm around Tyler's shoulders.

Maybe Tyler's friends weren't the most efficient people in the world, but Tyler surely could rely on them whenever he needed a lift of spirit or simply a good laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Josh is back in the next chapter, in case you guys are wondering.


	4. ZENITH

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got a little bit out of hand...fml  
> I could have broken this into two chapters but didn't, because I love you guys.
> 
> Oh, and this has over 100 hits already! Thank you frens, stay alive and enjoy the filth.

“Tyler? Sweetie, you need to wake up.” Brendon whispered right next to him and caressed his cheek softly. When Tyler opened his eyes, he realized that the black haired man was laying right next to him on the bed. The sun was shining in from the skylight so it must have been afternoon already.

“What time is it?” He blurted out in panic as he rubbed his eyes.  
“It's over 2pm.” Tyler was wide awake in a split second. He was about to really panic over lost hours of eligible work time, but before he could, Brendon interrupted him. “Don't worry. Patrick temporarily took your spot as a supervisor and is doing a killer job. I only woke you up because the electrician is here, and we didn't know what to do with him.”

“There's also breakfast waiting for you. Did you know that Jack is an amazing cook because I sure didn't.” Brendon babbled, as Tyler was clumsily putting his shirt on. Tyler tried to dress up as quickly as possible, but his body was still half asleep.

Tyler rushed down the stairs to be greeted by a grumpy looking older man, who was not happy about having to wait around. Tyler showed him the light fixture he wanted installed in his room, as well as a few other things around the house that needed to be fixed, like a hazardous looking electric socket in Pete and Patrick’s room, aka the guest room Tyler's parents used to stay in.

Alex, Jack, Pete and Patrick were on the porch taking a break, eating snacks and sipping beers when Tyler sat down on the steps between Pete and Alex. Brendon’s duffle bag was casually laying there on the porch, indicating that he would be leaving soon. 

“Why didn't you guys wake me up?” Tyler asked in a bitter tone when Brendon handed him an ice cold can of Red Bull and a plate with two sandwiches on it. The guys looked at each other awkwardly, but none of them said a word. Tyler sighed in frustration, left the can and the plate on the steps untouched and returned into, the house. He heard a short conversation take place, probably his friends arguing over who would try to talk some sense to Tyler, before Alex followed him into the house.

“Tyler!” Alex grabbed his arm and forced him to stop. Tyler turned around to face his friend, but had no real desire to talk to him. He was annoyed of how they once again treated him like a child. He was angry at himself for letting them see him crack the previous night and showed them a small sign of weakness.

“You just seemed so stressed, that we figured we'd let you sleep as long as possible. We didn't think you'd get upset.” Alex loosened his grip on Tyler's arm before finally letting go. Tyler didn't try to walk away, but he also didn't say anything, just stared at the floorboards in a blank expression for a good while. 

“Sure", Tyler said coldly after a while and turned his back to his friend in order to try to escape again.  
“No! Listen up, you little piece of shit”, Alex raised his voice making Tyler stop dead in his tracks. “You're not shutting us out over something this stupid, not again, do you hear me?” His eyes were ablaze and Tyler had never seen him like that. Alex was normally so calm and collected, and this was so far out of character for him that it freaked Tyler out.

“We...", Alex motioned furiously between himself and the others sitting on the porch pretending not to listen to the outburst. “...are here here to help you out. We are here because we love you, and we are not going to watch you go down this road again.” 

Tyler had a rap sheet of burning out, isolating himself and shutting people out for days, weeks or even months on end when going through things. It had a negative effect on his mental health as well as his relationships. Unfortunately it was the only way he knew how to handle his emotions besides music.

“You need to admit that you really needed the sleep.” Alex said in a softer tone. Tyler hated to admit that his friend was right, but still kept quiet and tried to keep up his angry facade. Tyler felt guilty for putting his friends through all kinds of shit, but was still annoyed by their constant need to babysit and hover over him all the time. 

“I know that we could have been more helpful, and that Jack and I shouldn't have tried to blow each other in every room of your house. But you better understand, that we solemnly have your best interest in mind, and that I don't regret for not waking you up, not for a second.” Alex bear hugged Tyler and gave him a quick friendly peck on the lips. Tyler couldn't help but let a little smile creep on his face.  
“Dude! Why would you tell him that?” Jack shouted from the porch as Pete, Patrick and Brendon tried not to choke from laughter.

“Please tell me that you at least brushed your teeth" Tyler said in disgust and playfully tried to push him further away.  
“Don't worry, Jack doesn't have any serious STDs”, Alex smirked.  
“That's it! I'm breaking up with you!” Jack shouted and flipped his boyfriend off.  
“Oh, and I think I just broke the electrician. You might need to find a new one", Alex chuckled as he let Tyler go.

“What?” Tyler asked before noticing that the electrician was standing on the staircase staring at them with a highly disturbed expression on his face. It was a face of a person who had just heard or seen too much. Tyler didn't blame him though, because Tyler assumed that he had just witnessed the whole scene, or at least the juicier half of it. Tyler apologized to him before heading back to the porch only to realize that he was starving.

 

By Sunday night the five of them had made incredible process. Most of the house had been cleaned from floor to ceiling, and the old dirty yellow wallpapers had been removed from the living slash breakfast nook area. Tyler had chosen a cool light grey color for the room, and he was now sitting alone on a blue tarp mixing a can of paint with an old cooking spatula.

Tyler had said goodbyes to Jack and Alex few hours prior. They were the last ones to go, since they were flying red eye back to LA. He had taken a nap and woken up only half an hour ago, around 11:30 pm, and wasn't really tired anymore, so he had decided to make the most of his time and decided to start painting the living room in the middle of the night.

He watched the paint swirl as low music was playing on the background. He dipped the brush into the paint and carefully swiped a small patch on the wall. Tyler pursed his lips and grimaced, when he realized that he didn't like the color at all. It was too something, or not enough something else, he couldn't say what exactly bothered him.

“Nice color." He heard a voice right behind him and a warm hand brush the back of his neck. Tyler jumped and dropped the wet paintbrush on the tarp, making the paint splatter in every direction. He had splatters on his bare feet, legs and basketball shorts. Tyler could swear he didn't hear the man coming in or walk right behind him.  
“Jesus Christ, Josh, you really scared me!” Tyler whined before taking a better look at the damage. Fortunately none of the paint splatters had reached the unprotected portion of the floor.

“Oh shit, I didn't mean to scare you! I thought you heard me come in. I knocked and everything!” Josh apologized, and Tyler realized that he too had been hit. Josh’s brand new looking shoes now had grey splotches on them. Tyler had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't heard the red head help himself in.  
“It's okay. I just got a little startled, that's all. I mean it's not too difficult to startle me these days", Tyler sighed as he stared to wipe off the paint with a damp rag.  
“You were really deep in your thoughts. What were you thinking?” 

Tyler dropped the dirty rag on the floor and shoved his hands into his pockets.  
“I realized that I got two and a half gallons of paint that I hate.” Tyler shook his head and took a barely noticeable glance at Josh. Tyler had forgotten how beautiful the other man was, and that his memory of him didn't give justice to the real deal.

“I don't see why you hate it, though“, Josh said and pursed his lips. Tyler blushed, because he didn't have a valid reason, so he only shrugged his shoulders.  
“Maybe you should give it a fair chance. You might end up liking it", Josh then said. Tyler didn't see sense in wasting hours on something he would most likely end up hating.  
“I don't know. It just doesn't feel right, you know?” Tyler hesitated and Josh nodded as a sign of understanding.  
“I could help you paint”, Josh then said and smiled that mesmerizing smile of his. “and if you still don't like the color, I'll repaint it alone.” 

Tyler didn't have anything against Josh hanging around a bit more, so he agreed, after pretending to ponder the offer for a few seconds of course.

“So what are you doing here so late anyways?” Tyler asked as he handed a paint roller to the other man.  
“I was walking in the woods and saw that your lights were on from the hilltop, so I figured I'd stop by to see what you have done with the house so far.” Maybe Tyler had understood it all wrong. Tyler felt a sting in his stomach and a lump form in his throat. He then simply nodded and started painting the wall as an ear piercing silence fell between the two of them.  
“I also wanted to see you”, Josh said in a hushed voice and batted his long lashes. Tyler felt his cheeks flush so much he had to turn his face away in embarrassment. A relieved smile crept on his lips. 

The boys shared awkward little looks and smiles here and there as they were trying to work. They spent good two hours telling each other everything that came to their mind and catching up twenty years worth of life. They asked questions, gave answers, joked, laughed and Tyler truly felt like they had been best friends all these years.

Tyler chuckled a bit and found it cute how carefully Josh was painting and how the tip of his tongue peeked out because he was concentrating so hard. Josh glanced at him and questioned what he was laughing at by simply raising his eyebrow. Tyler shyly shook his head and went back to painting his portion of the wall.

Two hours later when the first coat of paint was finished, the boys stood in the living room side by side. Josh was standing so close, that Tyler felt his heat radiating and he could smell his shampoo. He really wanted to get even closer to Josh, to touch him, to taste his lips again, but instead took a few clumsy steps away. 

“Do you still hate the color?” Josh asked and took a glance at Tyler who was twisting and turning the hem of his tank top in his fingers nervously.  
“Honestly?” Tyler asked and Josh gave him a small but wary nod. “I'm not mad at it", Tyler then said, and Josh sighed and gave him a sunny smile.  
“So we don't have to repaint it?” Josh asked hopefully. Tyler shook his head.  
“Correction. You don't have to repaint it.” Tyler giggled. Josh nudged him playfully.

“My room is almost ready”, Tyler said all of a sudden.  
“Oh yeah?” Josh lifted his gaze to meet Tyler's brown eyes. Tyler nodded.  
“It's still missing some furniture and I haven't made up my mind on the wallpaper yet, but pretty much.” Tyler's Spotify playlist had ended and the boys were standing there in silence.  
“Can I see it?” Josh asked sheepishly and Tyler's heart skipped a beat. He never thought bedroom as such a personal space until just now. On the other hand Josh had an unusual effect on Tyler, who had never fallen for someone this hard and fast.  
“If you want to.”

Josh followed Tyler upstairs one step behind. As Tyler flicked on the attic lights, both of them let out an ecstatic gasp. Tyler hadn't seen the light fixture installed and lights on yet. The shadows it casted, made the whole room look like something out of a dream. The light took the focus away from the fact, that the room was already a complete mess after only housing Tyler for a few nights.

The bed was unmade, sheets wrinkly and messy. One of Tyler's three pillows was laying on the dark hardwood floor next to a pair of jeans he had stepped out before jumping between the sheets for a nap. Tyler's duffle bag was laying in the corner of the room with clothes exploded out of it and some of the two dozen wallpaper samples had fallen down from the wall. His brand new bedside tables and some other furniture were still in their boxes by the wall untouched.

“Like I said, it's almost finished”, Tyler sighed embarrassed. He didn't remember the room being this much of a mess.  
“It's beautiful.” Josh stated as he walked towards the back wall that had pieces of wallpaper taped on it. He inspected them and even picked up some that had fallen down.

“Which one is your favorite?” Josh asked indicating towards the wallpapers. Tyler shrugged his shoulders, because none of them felt just right.  
“They don't feel right either?” Josh guessed, and Tyler simply shook his head as a response. “Seems to be on trend”, he chuckled.

“I like this one", Josh said and touched a dark grey wallpaper that had large pearly black patterns on it. Tyler wasn't quite sure what the pattern represented, but it wasn't too busy and he kind of liked the idea of black and white contrast.  
“It's a lot like you. Every time you look at it, something new catches your eye and you simply cannot look away.” Josh’s words were so sappy and sweet that it could melt teeth. Normally Tyler would say something witty in response, but now Tyler only blushed at Josh’s words. “And it looks good with the lighting”, Josh added and bit his lower lip in an extremely sexy way. Tyler wanted to be the one to gently bite that lip.  
“You're still talking about the wallpaper, right?” Tyler asked innocently and slowly licked his lips. Josh swallowed loudly as his eyes traced along with Tyler's tongue.

Tyler couldn't help himself anymore. Josh had teased him enough already, knowingly or not.  
He took a few quick steps towards Josh and roughly pushed him against the wall and crashed their lips together. Josh’s head banged against the wall and more wallpaper samples fell to the floor when his back swiped them off. Josh yelped in surprise, but answered the kiss hungrily.

“Oh, I see. This was just a clever plot to get me into your bedroom”, Josh grinned out of breath as they parted from the heated kiss.  
“Hell yeah it was", Tyler whispered in a husky tone. Josh’s lips brushed Tyler's ear and it made chills run down his spine. Josh continued to run his teeth down on Tyler's neck and nibbled the junction between Tyler's shoulder and the sensitive skin on his neck. Tyler arched his head back giving the red head more room as he sucked and nibbled Tyler's olive skin.

Tyler felt a hot breath on his neck as he let his hands wander on Josh’s sides. Josh grabbed a fistful of Tyler's hair and tugged gently, making Tyler groan, while his other hand was resting on the small of Tyler's back. Josh’s hands felt amazing and Tyler tried to thrust his body closer to Josh’s to get more. He needed more. 

Tyler's fingers wandered lower on Josh’s body and seek their way to unbuckle his belt. Josh quickly grabbed Tyler's wrist stopping him from doing what he was just about to do.  
“Tyler...Stop” Josh panted and stood up straight making Tyler take half a step backwards. “I- I don't think we should do this.”

“What? Why?” Tyler asked breathing heavily, his cock already half hard in his basketball shorts. A major panic flushed over Tyler, and he was so embarrassed for misreading Josh, that he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Tyler let go of Josh and backed away until he almost stumbled on a pile of laundry on the floor.

“I just don't think it's a good idea”, Josh stated and shimmied his hands into the pockets of his skin tight black jeans. Tyler was staring at Josh, Josh was staring at the floorboards.  
“Well, okay.” Tyler simply said. If Josh wasn't going to give him a proper explanation, Tyler sure wasn't going to get on his knees and beg for one. Tyler didn't have begging on his mind when he was thinking about getting on his knees just a few moments ago.

“I really want you, Tyler. God, look at you, how could I not, but I just...", Josh whispered the rest of the sentence making it impossible for Tyler to hear. Tyler's cheeks flushed, but he was still confused about Josh’s sudden change of mind, because only a minute earlier he had been all over Tyler.  
“Then take me. I'm all yours.” Tyler crossed his arms over his chest, almost challenging Josh. Josh’s breath hitched and he growled in a low tone at Tyler's words before shaking his head apologetically. 

“Fine.” Tyler said and climbed on the messy bed and stood on his knees facing Josh and staring at his brown eyes intensely. 

He slowly started to lift the hem of his black and white tank top, revealing portions of the soft olive skin inch by inch without breaking their eye contact. Josh shifted on his spot when Tyler brushed his fingertips against the soft skin on his own abdomen and let out a mix of sigh and a moan. 

“Wh- what are you doing?” Josh stuttered and his eyes widened when he watched Tyler drop the tank top on the bed next to him and started to run his fingers across his naked torso. Tyler's eyes fluttered shut when he slowly started to move his hand further down towards his basketball shorts.  
“What does it look like? I'm getting off, with or without you.” Tyler said bluntly with a grin, without bothering to open his eyes. “And you…” Tyler took a deep breath through gritted teeth. “..are welcome to either join me or leave.” Tyler palmed his dick agonisingly slowly through the fabric of his boxers and Josh stood there watching at him not knowing what else to do. Quiet gasps and moans fell from the brunette’s lips and it sounded like he was repeating Josh’s name over and over again.

Josh was standing on the verge of his self control, and he was obviously losing the battle. His cock was hard too, Tyler could tell it not only by the respectable sized bulge in his pants, but by the way he tried to adjust it by shifting in his spot but failing miserably. Tyler's eyes were now glued to the bulge on Josh’s pants and he let his tongue lick his lips and make them all wet and shiny from saliva.

“Fuck you, Tyler.” Josh groaned and took a few long strides towards Tyler.  
“Fuck me, indeed”, Tyler grinned devilishly when Josh was standing tall right in front of him. Tyler's fingers found their way to Josh’s belt once again and he started to unbuckle it. Josh quickly stopped him again by grabbing his wrists. This time Josh pushed Tyler down on his back and pinned his wrists above his head before climbing on top to straddle him. His weight felt so good on Tyler's body and Tyler could feel Josh’s dick press against his. Josh kissed Tyler's body wherever he could reach, scraping his teeth on Tyler's skin every now and then.

“My God you're hot", Josh mumbled against his skin. None of their movements were sweet or soft, but rough and hungry. The brunette was in cloud nine when Josh’s fingers found their way on his sides and his blunt nails scratched down, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to leave faint red marks. His hands were everywhere, except where Tyler needed them the most.

“Does this feel right?” Josh asked when his hot lips wandered further down on Tyler's abdomen. Tyler let out a helpless whine that sounded something like ‘ohyesgodpleasejosh', when Josh’s fingers quickly found their way inside his basketball shorts. The redhead palmed Tyler through the thin fabric of his boxers, and Tyler's breath hitched when the pressure was just right.

“Feels good, doesn't it?” Josh mumbled against Tyler's soft skin. Tyler had lost the ability form coherent words, so he only nodded furiously between short desperate gasps of breath. Josh was in total control, and Tyler didn't have any other option but to enjoy the ride.

Josh sat up and grinded his ass against Tyler's crotch as his lusty eyes gazed Tyler sprawled underneath him.  
"God, look at you. I can't wait to wreck you up", Josh growled before attacking Tyler’s neck in a hungry bruise leaving manner. Tyler moaned at his words and thrusted his hips upwards against the other, making him too take a few hitched breaths. 

“Josh, God… Please, Josh", Tyler whined when Josh’s hand found its way back down his loose shorts to slowly trace the shape of his dick through his boxers.  
“Please what?” Josh leaned down and whispered in his ear, gently nibbling his earlobe. His breath was hot, and it felt like it burned Tyler's skin but he needed more, so much more.  
Something. Anything. 

Tyler was at a loss of words, but to emphasize his ever so desperate need he pushed his dick against Josh’s palm making himself shudder in pleasure.  
“What do you want, Tyler?” Josh asked. “I'll give you anything you want. Be a good boy for me and use your words.” Josh growled against his skin.  
“I - want..need. Fuck. Harder..” Tyler moaned and Josh smirked at him.

“Not good enough, Tyler.” Josh said firmly, almost commanding when he placed his index finger under Tyler's chin, tilting his head upwards to force him to look at him. Brown eyes met brown eyes, as the boys stared at each other. Josh’s eyes had something almost animalistic on them as he pinned Tyler's body firmly down against the mattress preventing Tyler from moving. His movements were even rougher, almost enough to hurt or leave bruises. Tyler had never experienced anything like this before, but he loved it. It felt liberating to let go and have someone else take charge.

“Just stop teasing and do something, blow me, fuck me, anything!” Tyler whined in desperate frustration. Josh cocked his eyebrow with an amused smile on his lips and gave Tyler's cock a tight squeeze as a reward. Tyler cried in pleasure and arched his back as jolts of electricity ran through his body.  
“Good boy", Josh praised, making Tyler a blushing, panting mess underneath him. Josh noticed this and continued. “If you are a good boy for me, I just might fuck you so hard, you'll be screaming my name and forgetting yours.”

Tyler whimpered and tried to arch his back to get more of that sweet friction, but Josh was stronger and kept Tyler in his place. Josh stripped down his own shirt, unbuckled the belt and unbuttoned his jeans before standing back up. He gave peppering kisses to Tyler's stomach as his fingers found the hem of his basketball shorts and slowly started to push them down.

The brunette whimpered when the cool air hit his precum soaked dick. Cool air was quickly replaced Josh’s hot breath hovering over Tyler's cock, and his lips brushed over it barely touching. Josh grabbed Tyler's waist and roughly pulled him to the edge of the bed, so his toes almost touched the floor. Josh himself kneeled on the floor between Tyler's legs and without a warning took the precum leaking tip into his mouth.

“Fuuuck!” Tyler moaned in surprise and his body involuntary darted upwards. Josh hummed amused as he took Tyler's dick deeper into his hot mouth, using his hand to jerk off what he couldn't fit into his mouth. The vibration of Josh voice made Tyler squirm in pleasure and his hands were desperately fisting the sheets. 

While Josh’s lips were stretched around Tyler's cock, his fingers were caressing Tyler's inner thighs inching their way to tease his hole. A loud gasp was heard and Tyler covered his face with his arm when Josh slowly dragged his thumb over his entrance. Tyler's body nudged and his breathing immediately got uneven and more erratic.

Josh parted his lips from Tyler's cock and continued to kiss Tyler's thigh and sink his sharp canines into the soft flesh every now and then, then placing a soft kiss on the same spot. Tyler was biting his already raw lip trying to surpress his loud moans and whimpers when Josh removed his lips from his skin without a warning, earning a frustrated groan. 

Tyler leaned on his elbows and eyed at Josh, who had already stood up and was already leaning over to place gentle kisses on his lips. Josh quirked an eyebrow and smiled at him with a questioning expression.  
“Lube and a condom. In my bag", Tyler said out of breath and pointed towards the dim corner of the room before Josh had even time to ask. Josh got up and hurried to rummage through the black duffle bag. 

While Josh was at it Tyler was enjoying the view. Josh’s pale skin was flawless, firm and toned muscles showing and Tyler couldn't help but to sigh at the view. When Josh stood up and walked back towards the bed shirtless and jeans unbuttoned, Tyler stared at the delicious sight in front of him. Josh smirked at the staring brunette, but didn't say anything when he teasingly stripped his jeans and left them laying in the floor. 

He crawled into the bed on top of Tyler, who immediately pulled him closer to reunite their lips and grind their bodies together. Josh’s body was hot against Tyler's as their bodies were moving in unison, throbbing dicks rubbing against each other's, Tyler whimpering underneath Josh’s weight. Tyler's fingers found their way into the blood red cloud of hair and tugged sharply making Josh inhale sharply.  
“Josh…” Tyler pleaded in a weak voice. 

Josh stood up on his knees between Tyler's legs and caressed his leaking cock in his hand for a moment, before uncapping the lube and pouring a generous amount of the liquid onto his fingers. Josh lifted Tyler's left leg on his shoulder and placed his hand on his abdomen brushing the skin in a soothing matter. Tyler let out a long breath when he felt the cool fingers between his legs and Josh’s index finger slowly entering his body. Josh moved his finger slowly in and out bending it gently, barely avoiding Tyler's prostate before adding a second one.

Tyler let out a breath he hadn't realize he'd been holding and let out a loud whimper in a mixture of pain and pleasure. Josh leaned over to pepper kisses to his soft stomach and hips to help him adjust. Merely seconds later a jolt of pleasure impaled him when Josh’s finger barely brushed his prostate making Tyler arch his body and Josh grin in self satisfactory. Immediately after Josh hit the same spot again, brushing harder an Tyler's body squirmed as a result. Josh’s name and profanities were the only things filling the room together with whines and whimpers leaving Tyler's lips.

“I need your cock, Josh. Please fuck me” Tyler whined desperately, and Josh loved how much of a wreck he already was. Tyler was leaning on his elbows and stared at him with his caramel eyes glistening with plead. Josh couldn't deny anything from him, so he buried his fingers knuckle deep into Tyler once more earning a breathy groan. Even though he wasn't sure whether Tyler was already stretched enough or not, he put on the condom, lubed up himself and gave his dick a few slow strokes. His head fell back and a low groan left his lips before he aligned himself with Tyler and slowly started to thrust into him.

As he bottomed out, he gave Tyler a minute to adjust as both of them were breathing heavily. Tyler hitched his thighs up around Josh’s waist indicating that Josh should start moving. Josh placed his hands on both sides of Tyler's head, as he quickened the pace of his thrusts. The brunette did his best to keep their eyes locked, but when a jolt of pleasure waved over him, his body involuntarily arched and whimpering moans left his lips. Josh growled when he let his head fall when he felt Tyler clench around him.

“Fuck, Tyler… You're so perfect, so tight, so…ooh!” Josh gasped when Tyler purposefully clenched a few more times with a smirk on his lips. Josh grabbed a fistful of brown hair into his hand and tilted Tyler's head backwards revealing his neck and gently biting into his skin, teeth scraping over his clavicle and stopping over his jugular to suck on a dark mark on the other way flawless skin. 

His thrusts grew faster and even deeper, resulting in Tyler's nails digging into Josh’s back and leaving crescent shaped marks on his pale skin.  
“Josh, I'm going to come…” Tyler panted and continued to repeat Josh’s name over and over again his voice getting higher and higher.

“Harder, Josh, please…”  
Jos snapped his hips against Tyler's ass before he lifted Tyler's leg over his shoulder once more.He took Tyler's dick into his hand and started jo jerk it in a same pace with his thrusts. Tyler was a writhing, whining mess under him. His thrusts were relentless at this point, and after a few well aimed ones, a white stream of cum poured to cover Tyler's abdomen accompanied by hitched breaths and moans.

The redhead fucked Tyler through his orgasm before letting himself unravel with groans and Tyler's name filling the room. The lights in the attic flickered, but neither of the boys paid enough attention to their surroundings to notice it. Josh collapsed on the bed half laying on top of Tyler their sweat covered bodies sliding against each other's tangling their legs fingers together.  
“Fuck", Josh breathed and kissed Tyler's chest tattoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys see Josh’s new Instagram post? He has short hair now, and I'm not sure how I feel about it... Lemme know what you think!


	5. DEUS IN ABSENTIA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.

The sun woke up Tyler the next morning. The spot next to him was empty, only cold and wrinkled sheets were left next to him. Tyler brushed the rest of the sleep from the corners of his eyes, and groaned loudly at the sun shining into his eyes. He laid there still listening if Josh was still around, but he heard nothing even though he held his breath for a while to hear better. He was embarrassed of the way he had acted the previous night and couldn't blame Josh for leaving him like that. He knew, just knew that Josh wouldn't be downstairs to make him breakfast and greet him with that toothy, squinty eyed smile.

The sun was hurting his eyes and he grabbed a pillow to cover his face with. Tyler could still smell Josh’s shampoo on the fabric, and for a moment he could still feel Josh’s fingers tracing the shape of his body and his hot breath on his skin. Tyler felt his dick twitch slightly in his boxers and immediately threw the pillow to the wall and watched it fall to the floor with a faint thud and closed his eyes again, but the midday sun was too bright and brutal to be ignored.

Tyler hated those damn skylights.

Tyler realized that his body was sore and small faint bruises littered his hips and thighs, where Josh had sunk his teeth the previous night. He grimaced in discomfort when he forcefully scooped himself up and locked himself into the bathroom without opening his eyes before the door was tightly shut behind him. He flicked on the lights, turned on the shower, stripped off his boxer briefs and tossed them into the otherwise empty laundry hamper. 

The water was steaming hot when Tyler stepped under the stream, so hot that it almost scalded his skin, but he didn't care, only hoped that the water would wash away the memory. Tyler didn't cry, he didn't even feel like crying, which wasn't characteristic for him at all. He was such a crybaby, that it didn't take much for him to shed a tear or two. He cried over dumbest things, like Disney movies and animal videos on YouTube.

Right now the top most feelings he had, were disappointment and embarrassment. Tyler was angry at himself for pushing Josh to basically act against his own will, which resulted in Tyler feeling guilty. Tyler didn't blame Josh, he blamed himself.

 

After ‘The Incident’, as Tyler liked to call it in his head, Josh seemed to have fallen off from the face of the earth. 

The first day after, he spent on finishing the paint job in the living room and doing some online shopping for the freshly painted room. He tried to push away all the nasty thoughts in his busy mind, but failed miserably. A light hearted phone call with Brendon only helped the pain for a brief second, but the moment he disconnected the call, he felt as miserable as ever. It might have helped to just tell Brendon everything that has been going on with Josh, but he decided not to. He didn't really want to talk about it.

The second day he had a meeting with the landscaper. They had walked around the premises and talked about what needed to be done and what Tyler wanted the outcome to be. It all went well, until the landscaper had given Tyler an estimate of the cost. Tyler had bursted into laughter in front of her because he thought she was joking, because it had been so ridiculous. The landscaper had looked offended beyond proportions, so Tyler had decided to never call her again. Later that day Tyler had calculated that with Brendon, Pete, Patrick, Alex and Jack he could get the same shit done in less than a week and it would cost him a few hundred bucks worth of beer and food and a truckload of bad jokes. It would be even if Alex and Jack tried to redo their infamous blowjob challenge.

When the third day changed into the fourth, Tyler was certain that he would never hear from Josh again, so he spent most of the day in his bed moping around. Ever since he woke up that morning, everything he tried to do would automatically fail. He would drop things, stumble on items, so he was basically on a verge of breaking into tears the whole day, so he had decided to try to sleep the day away.

By the time seventh day rolled by, Tyler had given up hope for good and tried to get into his new routines as a homeowner. He started his mornings with a can of ice cold Red Bull and by using his big toe to power up his iRobot and watched it do its job for a while. 

On some days he would play his piano, and other days he would continue to work around the house so hard he forgot to eat or sleep. He had gotten used to the house and its quirks, and wasn't startled nearly as often as before. The house made unique noises depending on the weather, temperature and air humidity. For example on a particularly windy day, a faint banging could be heard coming from the roof, and on a hot and humid day the floorboards made creaking and snapping sounds.

 

This particular day, day number seventeen, was a Wednesday, and Tyler was sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair in a white waiting lobby under a long bars of fluorescent lights. He was nervously fidgeting his fingers and tapping them on his thigh while a low sound of a radio could be heard from a nearby room with it's door slightly ajar. Tyler's eyes hastily scanned across the posters that had been hung on the wall, not really stopping to read what they said.

He heard footsteps approaching and he immediately bounced up to meet a chubby older woman in her fifties with a clipboard in her hands, smiling at him.  
“I'm guessing you are Tyler?” She asked cheerfully. Tyler nodded nervously and picked the nail bed on his thumb with the bitten down nail of his index finger.  
“Don't be too nervous. Just follow me”, she said and started to walk quickly towards the door. Tyler was surprised of how fast the lady actually was, and he quickened his pace to keep up with her. The white lobby soon changed into a short hallway with grey walls, and the hallway was so narrow that Tyler almost felt claustrophobic.  
“I'm so sorry you had to wait, we had quite a commotion here earlier”, she then chuckled and her voice echoed through the hallway. Tyler just shrugged his shoulders to say it was okay, but soon realized that she couldn't see him, because her back was facing him.  
“I don't mind", Tyler said in a weak voice, that actually sounded so weak that Tyler himself didn't recognize it.

They took a left, another left and a right, until they were standing in front of a white door, with a small window at Tyler's eye level. He took a quick peek into the room, and his breathing hitched.  
“He's been expecting you. I told him earlier that you'd come see him and that he should put on his best behavior. I'm sure he'll love you”, the lady said in a soft voice. “Do you want me to come with you?” Tyler shook his head and the lady nodded.  
“There are others there too, but I think you'll recognize him when you see him.” She opened the door and nudged her head in an indication that Tyler should step in.

The room wasn't too big, and it had large metal cages in different levels in it, most of them empty. Tyler quickly scanned them through, until his eyes hit what he was looking for. He took a few wary steps closer and leaned over to see a little better. Tyler was greeted by the faintest, most curious ‘meow?’ in the history of animal kind.

A long haired black and white tuxedo cat with a grey smudge on his left cheek was staring at Tyler with wide eyes, hunched in the back corner of the cage.  
“Hey little buddy!” Tyler said, almost whispered to the cat. The cat lifted his head curious and stared at Tyler wary. “I- umm… I'm Tyler, and I'm going to take you home to live with me, if that's okay with you?” Tyler continued and put his hand closer to the cage. The cat sniffed Tyler's scent for a good while, until he took a step towards him. Tyler moved his fingers closer to the cat, almost close enough to touch him, giving the cat the opportunity to do his move.  
“I know this is really scary, and you don't really know me, but I swear I'm a good guy”, Tyler continued to sweet talk to the cat. It pushed his head towards Tyler's hand, but still not enough to touch.  
“I have a nice house and plenty of room for you to run around.” The cat pushed his cheek against Tyler's fingers. 

Tyler sat on the floor for a good while in silence and when the cat started purring and leaning his whole body against the grid of the cage to give Tyler better access at petting him. After a few more minutes Tyler felt confident enough to open up the door. The cat immediately placed both of his paws on Tyler's shoulder and pushed his face against Tyler's cheek.  
“Are we friends now?” Tyler chuckled, and the cat slightly squinted his eyes and purred loudly. Tyler carefully lifted the cat on his lap, and it relaxed in an instant.  
“You and I have a lot more in common than you think”, Tyler whispered and scratched gently a spot behind the cats ear. The cat had his eyes closed, but looked like he was carefully listening of what Tyler was about to say.  
“I was abandoned recently, and I heard you were too.” The cat looked up at Tyler and squinted his eyes again. Tyler could swear that it was a clear sign of understanding.

Fifteen minutes later there was a faint knock on the door.  
“Are you guys ready?” A woman's gentle voice asked. Tyler hummed in agreement, and was soon looking up at the woman with clear pride on her face.  
“I knew you two would get along!” She sighed and Tyler only smiled and nodded.

“I have the paperwork here, and I don't mind you answering the questions sitting down", the lady chuckled. There were a lot of questions, basic information and such, but Tyler answered all of them as thoroughly and carefully as possible, as the lady was writing down every tiny detail. The cat had fallen asleep at some point, and Tyler was doing his best to sit as still as possible so he wouldn't wake him up.  
“The final and the most important question”, she said and smirked at Tyler's concerned expression. “What are you going to name him?”  
“Blurryface", Tyler said without a hesitation.

 

“What the hell is that thing sitting on the counter? Is that a rat?” Brendon asked and grimaced in disgust. Tyler huffed at him and didn't even bother to respond. Blurry was sitting on the counter right besides Tyler and staring Tyler's iPad with his tail slowly flailing from left to right. Tyler was video chatting with Brendon while cooking dinner, and Blurryface thought he was helping by knocking things over.

“Remember that weird clock we found?” Tyler asked instead, and grabbed an assortment of spices from the kitchen cupboard. He was making scrambled eggs with vegetables, but it looked more like something Blurryface had eaten the previous night and vomited on the pan. He made a mental note to himself to learn how to actually cook, because with his cooking skills he would die of starvation in no time. Nearest Taco Bell was 56 miles away, Tyler knew that, because he had checked it after his first attempt to make a good old fashioned home cooked meal. He had been living on the leftovers of Jack's cookings and frozen instant meals.

“Don't tell me you still have it", Brendon stopped dead on his tracks and stared at him so intensely that Tyler thought that Skype had frozen. Tyler could tell exactly what he had been doing outside the picture, by the faint rustling of rolling paper.  
“Of course I still have it", Tyler said and rolled his eyes. “Only thing is that I noticed something odd about it.” Tyler opened a dish cabin, grabbed a plate and placed it on the white marble countertop.

“Like the fact that it runs backwards? Ty, honey, I know you're a bit slow sometimes, but come on”, Brendon said and Tyler could hear a familiar click of Brendon’s gold plated Zippo followed by a deep inhale.  
“Indica or sativa?”  
“Indica.” Brendon let out the breath he was holding and the screen was filled with white smoke. “Always indica.” Brendon was grinning like an idiot, so Tyler decided to return him back to the earth.

“Anyways. I noticed that every time I take look at it, it seems to be on time”, he said and accidentally dropped a fork on his toe. He let out a series of swears, while Brendon’s eyes widened. Blurryface was casually purring, but still keeping and intense eye on the man on the iPad who had just called him a rat.  
“That's not possible", he then said slowly. “It runs backwards, Tyler. Backwards.”

“I know, B. But trust me, I checked. Multiple times”, Tyler said while scooping a portion of food on to his plate. He then sat down and squirted a generous amount of ketchup and ranch dressing on his eggs and started eating. After a few silent seconds too many, he thought that the call had been disconnected again because Brendon was dead silent and frozen on the other end. Now THAT was odd.  
“Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it has happened way too often for it to be random”, Tyler explained with his mouth half full of food. He was slightly amused how nervous Brendon got around this subject.

“Dude, that is so creepy. Get rid of it.” Brendon sounded serious, which didn't happen too often.  
“I'm not getting rid of it", Tyler said a bit annoyed for the umpteenth time and kept shoveling food into his mouth.  
“Did you call anyone about it to get it fixed?” Brendon asked, and he was now pacing back and forth in his apartment in a nervous matter.  
“I looked up a clock smith a few hours away from here and emailed him a few days ago with a picture of the clock attached, but no response yet.”

Brendon hummed in response and Tyler heard he was rummaging through something.  
“Has anything else exciting happened?” Brendon then asked, and Tyler couldn't shake the feeling that he somehow knew about Josh. That would be impossible, though.  
“No, not really", Tyler lied, but forgot about the fact that Brendon could see him in high definition.  
“Bullshit. Talk to me”, Brendon simply said. Tyler hesitated for a moment and was leaning towards not telling and insisting that everything was fine, but his mouth was faster than his brain.

Tyler told Brendon everything about Josh and about their encounters including The Incident. Brendon listened silently until Tyler finished his story and Tyler expected him to burst into laughter and call Tyler a dumbass, but he sat there with a furious expression.  
“I swear I'm going to kill that douchebag", Brendon huffed, and Tyler could tell he meant business by how his nostrils vibrated. It looked hilarious every single time Tyler saw it, and it was difficult for Tyler to keep a straight face.

“Don't blame him. I'm the one who messed up", Tyler mumbled while carrying his plate and drinking glass into the sink and let water pour on them.  
“I've done my fair share of dumb stuff on dates, and none of the poor guys did anything nearly as shitty as this Josh guy did.” Brendon said Josh’s name in a mocking tone, and stared straight into Tyler's soul through the screen. Tyler had heard stories of Brendon’s dates and hookups, and dumb stuff was a serious understatement.  
“What do you want me to do then?” Tyler asked while he was trying to find his last chocolate pudding from the fridge.  
“You said his parents live nearby. Why don't you just go up there and just ask what the hell is the issue?” Brendon said and smirked evilly. 

Tyler immediately thought that it was a ridiculous idea, but he knew it needed to be done in order to get any explanation. It had been three weeks with no peep from Josh, and Tyler was not ready to let go yet. Blurryface squeezed himself between Tyler who was leaning against the counter and his tablet, and parked his fuzzy butt right in front of the camera lense.  
“I gotta go! Bye Bren, I love you!” 

Tyler turned off the iPad and rushed to retrieve his car keys, phone and a coat. He gave Blurry a few scratches behind the ear, and a quick kiss on top of his head before heading out. It was still early evening, and the last rays of the sun colored the sky in shades of red and purple. He sat behind the wheel and squeezed the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. He was already regretting this, but he wanted to know. He just needed to.

 

It was only a ten minute ride, but Tyler got lost twice because he was mistaken of the crossroad that would lead to Josh’s parents house. He really didn't want to bother them, but that sacrifice had to be made in order to get a conclusion to all this. The forest flashed by and Tyler was driving too fast, on the dirt road. Music was blasting through the speakers, and singing along out loud was the only thing keeping him from making a u-turn and keeping him remotely sane.

Soon he entered a large clearing, and his headlights revealed a well maintained flower garden, a small plot of crops and two new looking cars on the driveway. The house itself was a two story house, but all the lights on the second floor were turned off. The house was noticeably more modern than Tyler's, and it looked really nice and welcoming. All the lights downstairs were on, as well as the porch lights that lit a large portion of the driveway and yard.

He parked behind the cars, and sat in the car for a minute or two pondering if he really wanted to do this until he noticed someone peeking through the kitchen window. He turned off the engine, got out of the car and pocketed his keys with shaky hands.

Before even had time to get nervous about knocking the door, the screen door swung open.  
“Can I help you?” A woman, most likely Josh's mother opened the door with a wary look on her face looking quite annoyed by the uninvited guest on their driveway.  
“I'm Tyler, and..”, he tried to say, but it sounded more like a mutter. Mrs. Dun’s face immediately turned from a frown to a smile, and she rushed next to Tyler faster than a lightning.  
“Oh, I thought you were one of those door to door salesmen again, it's so good to see you Tyler! Come in!” She said without taking a breath between and grabbed Tyler's arm and gently started to nudge him towards the house. 

The house was definitely newer than Tyler's. The entrance hall was spacious and cozy, unlike Tyler's, that was cold, unfurnished and it echoed. Family portraits were hung on the light honey colored wall of the staircase and soft looking rugs covered the floors. Tyler realized that he needed to buy some rugs too. 

He spotted a picture of a blood red haired Josh sitting on a mahogany dresser. It was a cute candid photo of him playing drums and he was smiling that captivating smile of his.  
“Honey! Come see, it's Tyler Joseph, our new neighbor!” Mrs. Dun winked at Tyler and shouted towards the living room to alert Mr. Dun, who Tyler heard getting up from the sofa.

“I can't believe how grown-up you already are! Lemme see you!” She took a few steps back and inspected Tyler from head to toe. “You are even more handsome now than when you were a kid. You were such a beautiful child”, Mrs. Dun was chirping and hovering around him. Tyler blushed at her kindness and thanked her.  
“And so polite…” She sighed and smiled so wide that she was practically shining. “Do you want anything to eat or drink? Coffee, tea?”

“Umm.. No thank you, ma'am”, Tyler shyly shook his head and shifted uncomfortably on his spot.”I just really would like to talk to Josh first, if that's okay?” Tyler asked sheepishly and looked at Mrs. Dun from under his eyebrows.  
“Josh?” Mrs. Dun asked in confusion and Tyler nodded. A slight frown appeared on her face again. “Oh my goodness, of course you don't know…” She muttered more to herself than Tyler. A deep sorrow formed on her face. Mr. Dun appeared on the doorway and greeted Tyler with a smile and an approving nod.  
“Josh passed away three years ago.”

Tyler wanted to vomit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry not sorry.
> 
> "oh,i was taking a bath"  
> -Tyler Joseph-


	6. PRO MEMORIA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be some minor violence ahead, nothing too graphic, but wanted you guys to know.

Tyler was clutching the steering wheel in his hands so hard, that his knuckles were white and his fingers were numb. The steering wheel was the only thing keeping him from losing his mind and going hysterical for good. Tyler was angry, scared and confused all at once.

He had left the Dun’s so hastily with a half assed apology, that Mr. And Mrs. Dun had been left there standing in confusion. Tyler hadn't stayed long enough for them to tell him any more lies, but they had been discreet enough to leave him alone when he had just sat in his car screaming for a few minutes before starting his car and driving away in a hurry.

The dark forest flashed by him, but Tyler couldn't really concentrate on his surroundings. Instead he stared at the dirt road blotched with holes and bumps barely blinking tears in his eyes. When he took the last turn right to drive the remaining mile and a half, he was getting seriously hysterical and it was getting harder to breathe every second. Tyler's driving was almost erratic and dangerous, but he only wanted to get home fast. Honestly, he had no idea what he would do once he got there, but home was all he could think at the moment. 

Tyler parked the car on the spot near the house he always did, and ran into the house like something was chasing him. Tyler slammed the door shut behind him and collapsed on the floor crying. Blurryface came from the kitchen lazily yawning to see what the commotion was all about, and for a while he just stared at Tyler in confusion. He then came to him, laid down right next to Tyler's leg and started to purr. It was almost like he knew that Tyler needed a friend right then. 

Tyler's heart was pounding in his chest and his head hurt from crying. He had tired every single breathing technique he had learned over the years, but nothing seemed to help him calm down. His fingers seeked Blurry’s silky soft fur, and slowly started to stroke him. His purrs became louder, and even though Tyler's crying had already changed into little sobs here and there, he still had to remind himself to breathe from time to time. His mind was still a haze and he felt like throwing up when he scooped himself up from the floor and headed to the bathroom to wash his face with some cold water.

Tyler wanted to talk to someone, to have a second opinion on this, but he couldn't just call Brendon to tell him that the guy he hooked up with few weeks ago, has been allegedly dead for three years, which he obviously wasn't, but why would his parents lie about it? 

He was so confused that he even resorted to trying to talk to Blurry about it, but he seemed very uninterested in the topic all and all, so he casually left the room to play with his squeaky mouse toy in the kitchen.  
“Thanks, man!” Tyler said and followed the cat into the kitchen. He filled his bowl with kibbles and changed his water. 

Blurry was still busy with his toy when Tyler asked him if he would join him to bed, so he just left the cat alone in the dark and headed upstairs. Tyler stripped his clothes and took a quick shower before making himself comfortable between the sheets. Tyler was so exhausted, that even though it was an early evening, he soon was drifting towards dream land until a thought popped into his head.

Tyler quickly got up and tiptoed his way downstairs in bare feet in the almost pitch black darkness. He had learned how to navigate the rooms, so he easily found his way into the kitchen where Blurry was still kicking the mouse's butt, and pretending not to notice him. Tyler swiftly grabbed his iPad from the charger and rushed upstairs before the chilly floors had enough time to freeze his toes. 

When Tyler was once again safely under the blankets, he waited the iPad to turn on and anxiously tapped his fingers against the glass, when the loading screen didn't seem to disappear at all. Finally Tyler's desktop appeared, and first he opened up Google and typed in ‘Josh Dun’. 

The first result was a private Facebook profile, but the second one took Tyler to an official website of a band. He typed the band's name in YouTube search bar, and found a few old live videos of them performing in small venues, and two or three music videos. 

He tapped one video open, and stared at the drummer in the background in awe. Josh was in his element and he was really good. It almost seemed like Josh was pouring his heart and soul onto the drums. Tyler didn't pay much attention to the music itself, or the other musicians whatsoever. Only the crimson haired man behind his drum set had his undivided attention. 

The next video he watched was a more recent music video, but Josh wasn't in it. Tyler found it odd and disappointing, so he returned back to Google results. 

There was an interview made for a small underground magazine, but Josh was only mentioned in it by name, so Tyler didn't bother to read it. The next link took Tyler to an obituary. It was dated back to July 2015, and on the top was the same exact picture of Josh that had been standing in frames on a dresser at Josh’s parents house. Underneath the photo it read:

‘Joshua William Dun. June 18th 1988 - June 18th 2015. In loving memory of a brother, son, friend, a bandmate.’

Tyler's heart sank and he threw the iPad away from his hands like it was burning him. The tablet made a loud thud when it fell face down onto the hardwood floor. Tyler closed his eyes and tried his best to swallow all the tears gathering in his throat. None of this made any sense in his head and all he wanted to do again was to scream. Instead he fell back on the bed, squinted his eyes closed so hard, trying to stop tears from rolling down. Tyler's body and mind were so exhausted, that he had fallen asleep at some point not remembering whether he had been crying or not.

 

When Tyler woke up the next morning, his eyes were puffy and itchy from crying in his sleep. Blurryface was balled up right next to his face, so his tail was tickling Tyler's cheek. Tyler sank his fingers into Blurry’s fluffy fur, and scratched him gently making the cat purr and lean even closer to Tyler.  
“How'd you get in here, buddy?", Tyler asked sleepily. Blurry lazily opened his eyes and tilted his head not understanding, and just kept on purring. Tyler took a glance at the door and realized it was slightly ajar, enough for Blurry to sneak in. Tyler could swear he had closed the bedroom door after retrieving the iPad last night, because doors left open like this bothered the hell out of him. 

He picked up the fallen iPad from the floor and noticed that there was a small crack on the corner of the screen. Tyler sighed in frustration and tossed it on the bed and started to look for clean clothes to put on. He found a pair of loose grey sweatpants in his bag, but couldn't find a clean t-shirt or boxers. Instead, his hamper was overflowing, and dirty laundry was scattered all over his room.

While brushing his teeth, Tyler stared at his image on the mirror and realized he looked like crap that had been hit by a truck multiple times. He looked tired, dark circles were surrounding his caramel eyes, his hair was an overgrown mess and he really didn't look healthy at all whatsoever. Tyler had always been skinny, but now his ribs and hip bones were prodding through his skin alarmingly. He decided that he really needed to get a hold of himself and start taking better care of himself.

He slipped on his flip flops and headed towards the kitchen to get his daily fix of sugar, taurine and caffeine, wrapped in blue and silver. Maybe he'd eat something too, even though eating in the mornings usually made him nauseous. He didn't make it to the fridge, though, because there was a smiling redhead sitting on the kitchen counter reading a pamphlet Tyler had gotten from the shelter the day he had adopted Blurryface.

Tyler stood there dumbfounded and staring, even when Josh slowly put down the pamphlet obviously trying not to startle Tyler.  
“Morning”, Josh said softly and smiled ever so brightly. Tyler took a few wary steps backwards and stared at the man with saucer sized eyes.  
“No!” He then shouted and turned his back to Josh, shut his eyes and covered his ears. He then started to mumble ‘thisisnothappening, thisisnothappening, this is not happening’, over and over again like a mantra, that would wipe away what he just saw.

He heard a thud behind him, indicating that Josh had just hopped down from the counter, but Tyler kept his eyes tightly shut and repeated the words quietly. He felt a light touch on his shoulder, but he simply flinched away from the touch.  
“Please go away…” Tyler pleaded in a weak voice.  
“Tyler, please”, Josh begged and tried to make eye contact with the brunette. Josh gently placed his thumb under Tyler's jaw and lifted his head upwards. Tyler was still squinting his eyes shut tightly, even when hot and salty tears starting to gather in the corners of his eyes and his body was trembling.

“You can't be here", Tyler whispered and slowly opened his eyes.  
“And yet, here I am”, Josh said softly and caressed Tyler's jaw with his thumb. For a moment they just looked at each other in silence, until Jos started to talk.

“All I wanted was to tell you. At first I didn't know how, and then I just sort of...forgot", Josh mumbled and Tyler took a few steps backwards, and looked like he was about to burst out of his seams.  
“Jesus Christ, Josh! How on earth do you forget to mention that you died three years ago?” Tyler was now pacing back and forth between the kitchen and the foyer.  
“First of all, you never asked”, Josh said jokingly, scoffed his shoulders and gave Tyler an innocent smile. Tyler narrowed his eyes and didn't look amused at all.  
“I can't believe I had sex with a ghost.” Tyler huffed.  
“Technically I'm not a ghost. I can't walk through walls, disappear into thin air, I most definitely do not carry chains and shackles around with me and you can touch me", Josh chuckled.  
Tyler stopped on his tracks and stared at Josh in disbelief.

“Then what the hell are you?” Tyler felt like he was trapped in a nightmare, and tried his best to wake up from it.  
“Beats me. I'm even surprised that you can see me in the first place. No one else does”, Josh said and tapped the door frame with his fingers. Tyler continued his pacing back and forth and Josh kept his eyes on Tyler. “Well, besides Blurry", Josh added and waved his hand to Blurry, who glanced back with narrowed eyes, clearly unamused. Josh found it hilarious how much the cat and his owner were alike, but kept a straight face.  
“And that's supposed to make me feel better?” Tyler stopped for a second, but continued his nervous pacing. Blurryface laid on the floor with his toy within paws reach, and watched his owner intensely.  
“No. I'm just saying.” Josh breathed in frustration.

“You know what I think?” Tyler asked, and Josh raised his eyebrows curiously. “I think that none of this is actually real, and that I've finally lost it and gone completely insane. I'm probably locked up in an insane asylum somewhere right now, and this is all in my head.” Tyler gestured furiously with his hands. Josh let out a cackle at this, but shut his mouth immediately after seeing how serious Tyler looked like.

“Yeah… No, I don't think so, Tyler.” Tyler narrowed his eyes again and glanced at Josh. Tyler didn't say anything, but raised his eyebrows in a demanding way. Josh cleared his throat.

“You want to hear something?” Josh asked, and Tyler replied with an eager nod. “Since the beginning I thought this as my personal hell. A hell, where I was sentenced to spent the eternity alone, trapped in this godforsaken town that I hate from the pinnacle of my hair to the pit of my stomach. But since you came along…” Josh swallowed, took his snapback off of his head only to put it back a few seconds later. “I haven't felt like that, Tyler. For the first time in three years. After that night I...”, Josh’s voice faded away, and he twisted his fingers nervously. 

“Yes? Go on.” Tyler said in an odd sarcastic tone that he didn't know he had in him.  
“I realized that I like...like you. And I mean like, like like you, and it scared me, because how could this ever work?” Josh explained desperately and motioned between the two of them. Tyler couldn't but to chuckle at Josh’s choice words and for a moment he forgot that he was supposed to be pissed at him.  
“I swear to God, if you say ‘like', one more time…” Tyler said only half serious a hint of smile creeping onto his lips.  
“Are you going to, like...kill me?” Josh cackled like an idiot. Tyler couldn't help but to laugh at him.  
“Oh my God, I hate you so much" Tyler giggled while trying to catch his breath.  
“No, you don't”, Josh smiled. Tyler smiled too, and for a second he felt like everything was going to be okay, but deep down he knew. He knew that this was fucked up in so many different levels, and couldn't shake the terrifying feeling pounding in the back of his head. Silence fell between the two of them, when both boys were trying to gather their thoughts.

“Why don't you just leave if you hate it so much in here?” Tyler asked eventually and sat down on the dining chair, only to stand up and keep walking merely a second later.  
“You think I haven’t tried that?” Josh asked and laughed dryly. “Every time I wander far enough, I end up exactly where I left from.”  
”This is all so weird and fucked up", Tyler said defeated and shook his head not understanding anything at this point.

And when Tyler thought it couldn't get any weirder, it did.

“I can't even die", Josh said cheerfully and grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter, lifted the hem of his shirt and shoved the knife into his stomach. Josh grimaced and grunted in pain when the knife made a disgusting wet sound as the blade impaled his internal organs.  
“Holy shit, Josh!” Tyler screeched, and looked horrified as Josh slowly removed the blade revealing nothing. Not even a small cut, no blood, no nothing. Just the smooth skin of his abdomen.

“See? I can’t die, man”, Josh said and grinned. The dude fucking grinned after he just shoved a knife into his body!  
“Can you like... feel it?” Tyler asked dumbfounded and stared at the spot on Josh’s skin where the knife had just been.  
“Yeah, for a moment. I feel when it goes in and comes out, but as soon as I take it away, the pain is gone”, Josh explained and placed the knife on the counter. Tyler grabbed it into his own hand immediately to see if the knife was truly real. Turns out it was.

“I’ve practically tried everything”, Josh started and Tyler looked at him warily. “I jumped off the roof and felt the pain when I broke my bones, but merely seconds later I stood up and I was fine.” Tyler could only stare at the man standing in his kitchen.  
“I tried to burn myself to death, didn’t work. I felt the flames burn my skin to crisp, but when the flames died down, my skin was all intact.” Josh ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged his shoulders.  
“I also tried to drowning, stabbing - as you just witnessed, slitting my wrists, getting hit by a car, everything except shooting, but that’s only because I haven’t gotten my hands onto a gun yet.”  
“Please stop”, Tyler begged and shook his head. Hearing all the awful thing Josh had done to himself made Tyler's insides twist.

For a while the house was dead silent again, only the sound of Blurry licking his tummy could be heard.

“I found your obituary online. You died on your birthday?” Tyler asked and took a step towards Josh, who simply nodded and tried to avoid Tyler's gaze on him. Tyler took another few steps towards Josh and cupped his cheek before he took Josh’s jaw into his hand, and made the red haired boy look at him in the eyes just like Josh had done to him moments ago.  
“What happened to you?” Tyler whispered as the boys looked at each other with sorrow in both of their eyes. Josh lifted his hand to gently caress Tyler's overgrown fluff of a hair and took a deep breath as he stared reminiscing his last night.

Josh had been having the time of his life, celebrating his birthday at a nightclub on the Sunset Boulevard with his bandmates. Despite it being a Sunday night, the club had been jam packed with party people, drinking heavily and grinding against each other on the crowded dance floor. Josh and his friends had been drinking too, but Josh wasn't too drunk, he only had few drinks. Josh never drank too much, in fear of losing control, and this night was no exception. 

The music was blasting and the lights were flashing accordingly as Josh was dancing and laughing with his friends, spilling his drink clumsily on the floor every now and then and once on his jeans. The music seemed to flow through his body and it had felt amazing to let loose a bit.

At the end of the night Josh had said goodbyes to his friends by the club entrance, still laughing and joking around. Tim had given him a friendly ‘happy birthday’ -kiss on the cheek before parting ways. Josh had known the neighborhood fairly well, and his apartment was only a few blocks away. It would take him ten minutes tops to reach his apartment, despite his slightly tipsy state. He wasn't drunk per se, and he felt comfortable walking home by himself, just like he had done dozens of times before.

It had been a warm night despite a light drizzle as Josh walked through the quiet streets. His phone kept buzzing and chiming, because it was past midnight and it was his birthday after all, and all of his social medias were blowing up. He had been smiling to himself while reading through the birthday wishes he had already received from friends and family.

He had heard a group of three or four men approaching him from behind on an otherwise empty street and as they were getting closer, Josh heard that they were shouting profanities and insults to his way. 

Josh had stopped for a second to see what the fuss was all about, but when realizing the threatening nature of the situation, he had started running away as fast as he could. His few seconds of hesitation had cost him his head start, so after a few steps he felt one of the men grab him by the hood, and slam him head first onto the pavement. 

From that moment on, Josh only felt agonizing pain throughout his head and body, as the men kicked and stomped him against the asphalt, and then all of a sudden...nothing.

His blood red hair had been covered in real blood, as the ambulance and the EMTs arrived at the scene.

“I heard, that died of a head trauma in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.” Josh pressed his head down to stare blankly at the floor. Tyler let out distressed whimper as he ran his fingers through Josh’s hair. He then nuzzled his face gently into the blood red fluff, and gave peppering kisses into the mess of a hair. Josh’s fists were wrapped tightly around Tyler's shirt, and Tyler could feel how tense the other boy was.

Tyler had major issues in wrapping his head around this. There were so many more questions than answers, and it grew more and more obvious that all of this was messed up.

“How did you end up here, then?”  
“Honestly, I have no idea. I remember the street and the pain and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the woods. I didn't know what had happened, but I recognized the area since this is where I spent all of my childhood. I wandered to my parent's house only to realize that they were mourning. So there I stood in front of my mourning mother and screamed for her to look at me, but she wouldn't, Tyler. She couldn't…” Josh’s voice died down, as Tyler held the man close to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I think we're over halfway point with this now!


	7. SILVER HORIZON

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My life hit a really rough patch this fall, and as a result I'm going through a divorce. I needed to take a break from everything extra in my life to get everything in order.  
> I'm back now, though. 
> 
> It's been a while since I have been writing anything, so it might show… 
> 
> I hope you guys are doing good. :)

Tyler was sitting on the floor, throwing books over his shoulder every once in a while, huffing in disappointment every time he did so. 

“Ow!” Josh squealed when one particularly heavy book hit him. Tyler turned around to see Josh, who was rubbing his arm, face winced in pain.   
“Oh shit, I'm sorry. Did you just wake up?” Tyler asked and looked up at shirtless Josh, who was rubbing his eyes and who's hair was a mess. 

“I could help you out, if you let me,” Josh said and ran his fingers through Tyler's hair. Tyler leaned in against his hand and let out a long sigh.   
“It's okay, I'm almost finished anyways,” Tyler said absentmindedly, eyes back on the pages the book he was going through.   
“What are you looking for anyways?” Josh asked and sat on the floor next to Tyler and a mountain of old dusty books. Tyler shrugged his shoulders, still leafing through a book.  
“Nothing in particular”, Tyler mumbled and leafed through another book with tattered pages.   
“Bullshit”, Josh coughed and received a meaningful look from the brunette.  
“You have obviously been browsing through the books for a hot minute now, and to me it seems like you are looking for something very particular.”

Tyler grunted and said nothing in response. Josh shook his head and ripped the leather bound book from Tyler's hands. He replaced the book with his hands and the two of them just sat on the floor face to face holding hands. Josh was trying to make eye contact, but Tyler was doing his best to avoid it. 

Josh leaned in and pressed his lips against Tyler's, making the brunette blush. After they pulled apart, Josh raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner. 

“I'm just trying to figure some stuff out,” Tyler said.   
“Like what?” Josh deadpanned. Tyler sighed, but didn't say anything. Josh's soft fingers traced circles on the backs of Tyler's hands in a soothing way, silently telling him that it's okay, that Josh was listening, but Tyler wouldn't budge. Neither of them said anything for a while, and only the low hum of rain pouring down outside could be heard. 

“Nothing is random here”, Tyler huffed eventually, pulled his hands away from Josh's grip and grabbed another old book from the pile.   
“What the hell does that even mean?” Josh asked and stood up frustrated. He brushed book dust off of his jet black jeans and almost lost his balance for a second. 

“I don't know yet,” Tyler said quietly. Silence fell between the two of them yet again, but this time neither of them said anything further and just like that, the moment was over and Tyler was back in his little world shuffling through books and throwing them over his shoulder every once in a while.

Josh stood in the doorway looking at him worriedly, but not daring to ask or say anything. Every now and then a book landed on his feet after a particularly frustrated toss from Tyler.

 

The night had already fallen and it was dark outside when Tyler finally tossed the last book out of his hands. He had been so lost in his head, that he hadn't realized the time flying by. His legs were numb from sitting criss-cross applesauce on the cold hard floor and his neck had a crick that caused his temples to throb. He also felt a little bit guilty for ignoring Josh all day.

The truth was that Tyler had no idea what he was looking for, if anything. He just had this twisting feeling in his stomach, that everything around him was connected somehow. He just couldn't explain it or connect the dots yet, little less pinpoint what exactly was bothering him.

There was still one thing that he needed to do before calling it a day, something he had been pushing for a few days now. 

Tyler dug his phone out of his pocket and, grasped it in his hand like his life depended on it. He had his mother's contact on the screen in no time and his thumb was hovering over the call button. He hated to admit that he was really of nervous about this. 

“Hey honey! How's everything down there on the countryside?” His mother's voice was cheerful, and Tyler could tell, that she was vast in the middle of cooking dinner by the chopping sound coming from the background.   
“‘S all good, Brendon is coming over this weekend to help me out with some stuff,” Tyler said casually. His mother huffed on the other end of the line. Kelly Joseph truly hated Brendon Urie. Their personalities just did not match, and neither of them had no interest in fixing the situation, despite the fact that Tyler and Brendon had been inseparable for over ten years. 

Brendon and Tyler had actually dated for like a minute back in their late teens, and around that time Tyler and Brendon had gotten themselves into some trouble once or twice. Nothing too serious, but enough for Tyler's mom to start hating Brendon. She thought that he was a bad influence on Tyler, but Brendon wasn't bothered by it, not even one bit. 

Tyler's very first sexual experience actually happened with Brendon. It hadn't been anything magical, but pleasant and safe, a nice experience all and all. Tyler was still grateful after all these years that it happened with him, instead it being a drunken mistake with a stranger in a college party. They had gotten caught by Tyler's mom afterwards, laying in Tyler's bed naked, sweaty and limbs tangled, a used condom casually laying in the middle of floor. The room had reeked of sex, and Tyler's cum on the sheets hadn't even dried out yet. Brendon still found it hilarious after all these years. 

Their relationship had been a mess from the get-go, so they had mutually agreed to end it. Turned out that the two of them made the bests of friends. 

“How's the renovation going?” She then asked, obviously trying to change the subject trying to shrug Brendon off of her mind.   
“All good. They guys were here to help me out a few weeks ago and we made some good progress. I decided to make the attic my room,” Tyler explained, and twisted a loose thread on his jeans in his fingers.  
”It's such a beautiful space, the flooring, and the skylights... I remember you and your brother being terrified by it back in the day, though,” Mrs. Joseph chuckled. 

Tyler's breathing hitched, when he realized that this was his moment to ask the question that was the reason of this phone call in the first place. 

“About back in the day… I want to know why we never came back here”, Tyler asked before he would chicken out. His mother let out an awkward laugh in response. She didn't say anything for a while, and it revealed Tyler that he had hit a goldmine. Tyler's mother was never this quiet, except in moments like this - when she was trying to come up with a lie.  
“Oh, it was just so far away and when Jay was born it would have been too much of a hassle to drive all four of you down there.” 

Tyler rolled his eyes and could tell that his mother was lying. Mrs. Joseph kept blabbering useless words that Tyler really didn't want to hear. He wanted to know what happened over twenty years ago, and he thought that he deserved to know the truth.   
“Mom.” Tyler said firmly, and his mother fell silent. 

“Did it have something to do with what happened between me and that neighbor boy in the woods back then?” Tyler then asked and shifted his position in a nervous manner, unknowingly holding his breath.   
“That Dun boy? No, God no. Tyler...” Tyler's heart skipped a beat or two, when hearing that his mom actually remembered Josh.   
“I mean you guys have never been quite okay with who I am…” Tyler pointed out, but kind of mumbled the last few words. 

His parents were never completely okay with Tyler being gay, but they tried very hard. In the end Tyler could never shake the feeling, that they were waiting for it to pass and that Tyler would magically change his mind about it.  
“Tyler. You know that me and your father love you very much,” his mom started. Tyler kind of tuned out after this, knowing exactly what she was saying. Every single time this was brought up, she made a whole speech about how they would love Tyler no matter what, even if he was two feet tall, or grew an extra arm out of his stomach. Despite this, Tyler still felt like it was kind of fake and rehearsed, and it only managed to annoy him even further. 

“Then what fuck is it?” Tyler deadpanned.   
“What so horrible could have happened that you never even sent your aunt a Christmas card after that?” Tyler's voice was harsh, and he heard his mother gasp on the other end of the line.  
“Tyler Robert Joseph! Don't you dare…”   
“Don't dare what? Ask questions?” Tyler asked in a cold tone. His mother was boiling in the other end of the line, Tyler could tell by the way her breathing got heavy and intermittent, but she stayed silent and didn't say anything further. “Fine. I gotta go anyways. Bye!” Tyler said angrily and ended the call before his mother had the time to come up with more lies. 

Tyler melted onto the floor and rubbed his aching temples. Laying there on the floor he realized that he hadn't seen Josh in hours, in fact he hadn't seen a flash of him since their sappy little moment around noon. Tyler straightened up, rubbed his sore neck and groaned in slight pain before brushing some dust off of his pants. 

It was incredible how the dust was still everywhere even though Tyler had been living in the house for almost a month already. He had been a good grown up and mopped the floors almost weekly, and he had his super high tech robotic vacuum cleaner do its job daily. Blurry hated it and hid under the bed every time it was on. The said cat was sleeping on the old wooden desk chair, completely oblivious of the world surrounding him. 

Tyler got up and carefully tiptoed around the books that were scattered all over the room. He didn't have the heart to step on them, even though they were all on their way to the dumpster. He managed to find his way out of the study only to realize that the whole house was dead silent, lacking any source of light or sound.

“Joshie?” Tyler sing-songed, but didn't get a response. Tyler frowned a bit, but tried again for a few times, ending up with the same result. Tyler grew slightly worried when his still wobbly legs took him to the kitchen to find something to drink and maybe eat too. Tyler grabbed a can of Coke from the fridge and abandoned the idea of eating. He wanted to find Josh first, everything else was insignificant at that moment.   
He checked out all the rooms downstairs before heading to the second floor. There were no lights on the hallway either, so Tyler headed straight to his bedroom to see if Josh had maybe gone to bed already. It wasn't that late yet, but Tyler figured that he might have gotten bored all by himself and fallen asleep. 

Upon entering the bedroom, Tyler noticed that the door to the bathroom was slightly ajar, and the yellowish light from the old light bulb casted a creepy glow to the room.   
“Josh?” Tyler cooed and peeked his head into the bathroom. 

Josh was laying in the sparkling white bathtub naked, body and face fully underwater, completely stationary. Tyler took a few steps closer to the tub to get a better view of Josh, and saw that the man looked like a beautiful porcelain doll that had been just forgotten there in the clear water. His red curls were floating, his lips slightly parted. That sight reminded Tyler of a male version of Ariel in The Little Mermaid. 

And then it hit him. 

“No no no! Fuck!” Tyler cried and dropped the half full can of Coke on the floor, as he hastily stepped into the bathtub, water splashing all over the floor and walls. Tyler grabbed Josh by his arms and tried desperately to pry Josh out of the bathtub. Josh’s body was all limp and weighed a ton when Tyler tried to get him above the water line. The water and lavender scented bath gel combined made his skin all slippery, and it was impossible for Tyler to get a proper grasp of him. 

Tears were streaming down his cheeks when he finally managed to prop Josh into a sitting position against the tiled wall.

“Fuck, Joshie, please wake up. You need to wake up…” Tyler was full on bawling at this point, sitting on top of Josh, straddling him in the lukewarm water, hugging his lifeless body and caressing his dripping wet hair.   
“Dude, what the heck?” Josh choked all of a sudden, coughed out some water and opened his caramel eyes. 

“Oh my God, Josh! You scared the living shit out of me! I thought you were dead.” Tyler whined and squeezed the man so hard that it made Josh let out an odd wheezing sound.   
“You seem to forget that I AM, indeed, dead,” Josh chuckled and swiped a wet lock of blood red hair off of his face.  
“I thought you drowned, you asshole!” Tyler stated and was not amused by Josh's bratty response.   
“I just fell asleep,” Josh smiled and shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. Tyler rolled his eyes and mimicked his words in a mocking tone. Tyler was about to get out of the bathtub, since he was still wearing all of his clothes. The soaking wet skinny jeans felt uncomfortable on him, but he was stopped on his tracks when Josh grabbed his hand and pulled him back in with a splash. 

“Hi…” Josh said softly when Tyler was securely back on top of him and the two of them were sitting face to face so close, that their noses almost touched. Tyler pursed his lips and huffed, indicating that he was still slightly annoyed by the situation, but a faint smile crept to his lips when Josh gave a gentle peck on his nose.   
“Hey,” Tyler whispered and smiled shyly. Josh leaned their foreheads together and locked their eyes.   
“You're wearing jeans in the bath,” Josh pointed out the obvious and slid his fingers into Tyler's belt loops and pulled the blushing brunette closer to him. 

Tyler giggled breathlessly when Josh gently brushed his lips on his jawline and neck, hands slowly kneading his ass through the wet denim.   
“Stop it…” Tyler whimpered not sounding convincing at all. He let his hands slide down Josh's shoulders to his sides and eventually to his stomach to caress his well formed abdomen. Josh let a restrained gasp fall off of his lips when Tyler's fingers accidentally touched his half hard dick under the water. 

The brunette smirked in self satisfactory and continued to place chaste kisses on Josh's cheek, his hand resting casually on his hip. His gentle movements caused Josh to lean his head against the wall and let out small sighs every now and then. 

They spent a good while doing this. Small meaningful kisses here and there, brushes of fingers in places that made the other go crazy. There were calculated body movements that were there solemnly to make the other feel good, and to provoke the other to do something more. 

The bath water was getting cold and Tyler was unknowingly shivering underneath the soaking wet hoodie, and his lower lip had a purplish tint on it.   
“Ty, you're freezing,” Josh whispered to his ear and let his lips barely touch the delicate skin under Tyler's ear.   
“‘S okay,” Tyler mumbled and let his head fall back, urging Josh to continue what they were doing before. Josh laughed in amusement and nudged Tyler gently.   
“Get up,” Josh said softly, but the brunette either didn't hear him, or pretended not to hear him. Tyler only ground his body against Josh's harder, letting a set of small moans into the air. 

“Ty, I told you to get ..oh fuck.. up,” Josh moaned when Tyler pushed his body even closer to Josh's, and deliberately ground his ass slowly.   
“I heard you,” Tyler snickered, but took no action to even budge. Instead he snaked his fingers lower on Josh, and wrapped them around his now fully hard cock.   
“Tyler,” Josh said now in a more firm tone and grabbed his wrist to stop him doing what he was about to do. 

“I don't want you to catch a cold,” Josh said gently and ran his fingers through Tyler's brown tuft of hair. Tyler huffed and whined like a little kid, that was just forbidden from raiding the cookie jar, but let go with a pout.  
“Just take off the wet clothes and get in the shower,” the redhead commanded, kissed Tyler's cheek once and tapped his ass twice underwater.   
“But moooooooom,” Tyler whined in an annoying voice and cackled, but separated his body from Josh's and started to get up.   
“Dude, totally uncool,” Josh said and slapped Tyler's ass, before he was out of his reach. Tyler yelped and flipped Josh off with a sly grin. 

“You just wanted an excuse to see me naked,” Tyler giggled when he dropped the heavy wet hoodie on the floor with a splat. Josh, who was unplugging the bathtub rolled his eyes.   
“Just shut up and get in the shower.” Josh grabbed a towel from the towel rack and swiftly wrapped it around his waist.

“Aren't you going to join me?” Tyler asked with puppy eyes and bit his lower lip seductively before stepping under the graciously warm shower.   
“No, I'm getting you something to eat and then we'll go to bed.”   
“Oh come on,” Tyler groaned before leaning his elbows against the shower wall and arching his back so his ass was pointing out perfectly. Josh had to swallow and take a set of deep breaths when his eyes traced the beautiful curves on the brunette’s body. 

Josh stepped into the shower with Tyler quicker than a lightning. He pinned Tyler against the wall and breathed hotly against his ear.   
“Nope.” Josh whispered, and with that he let go of Tyler. 

Josh's hair was still dripping wet when he grabbed a dry towel and hurried out of the bathroom with a prominent tent on the front of his towel.  
“So… Should I like… jerk off, or what?” Tyler shouted after him, but didn't get a response back.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, and remember guys, that English isn't my first or even second language, so please give me some slack.  
> Let me know if you like the story so far. ;) <3


End file.
